Ch-Ch-Changes

Wow...  I turned my head for just a minute sometime back in January and suddenly March is here!  I am amazed at how quickly the time has flown from January until now.  I'll let you in on a little secret.  We have a semi-legitimate reason for our distraction.

On January 14, my baby sister, her husband, and their two adorable girls came for a visit.  They liked hanging out with us so much that they decided to stay. 

Okay, maybe that's not exactly how it happened, but I like to think about it that way.  Truth be told, they prayed and waited and watched and realized that God was leading them out of the west and into the mid-east.  We had offered our home to them as a place to stay until they could get on their feet with jobs and a place to live.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic to get the phone call back in December (or was it November?) that they had decided to move out here.

To be quite honest with you, it doesn't feel like they've been here six weeks.  The time has really just flown by.  I think it has something to do with the munchkins that I get to play with every day.  They look like this:

The best thing about this whole experience is that my kids are changing as a result of their live-in cousins. 

My 7 year-old girl has turned into a little mother, right on down to lifting and buckling girls into high chairs, wiping little hands and mouths, and finding toys to occupy bored pre-schooler brains.  She adores her little cousins, and I think the feeling is mutual.

I have watched the boys change too.  The 8 year-old has continued to be a big helper and he's becoming more involved in the meal-making process.  He made oatmeal for seven people this past Sunday and he's constantly sorting, folding and putting away laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and begging for more chores to do to help.  The 8 year-old pretty much just rocks these days.

And the 5 year-old, the baby...  He really has been the baby up until about a month ago.  It's not that we treated him like a baby, but he was just always the youngest and relied on others to entertain him.  Now, he's got two younger housemates and he ends up comforting a sad little girl or finding fun games to play with the two cousins, or speaking with that sing-song voice grown-ups use when they're speaking to a 2 year-old.  It's been miraculous to watch him change so swiftly over the last month.  I've never treated him like he's my baby, (well at least not since he started school!) so it's nice to see him growing into a big boy version of himself on a more full-time basis.

Wait a minute.  That wasn't what I meant by big-boy help!

There he is, helping the girls play Connect Four. 

That's more like it.

I think the biggest surprise/relief for me has been the way Hubby and I have interacted with each other over the last six weeks.  I must admit that I was a little concerned that we would get snippy with each other and have shorter fuses with the added "stress" of having four more people in our house.  I am certain it is one part "good marriage" and many parts "Divine intervention" that has caused us to grow closer as a result of our shared living quarters. 

It really has been awesome to see our individual responses to the changes in our house.  I'm looking forward to seeing what our new and improved selves do next!

(And just an FYI for those who are curious...  My sister and her hubby both have full-time jobs now and are hoping to have a place of their own by April.  I know they will love having their own space and privacy, but we plan to see lots of them after they've moved out.  So they'd better not get any ideas of being too far away!)