I wrote here last week about our square-foot gardening endeavor, and wanted to update you on how things are going.

I apologize for being in-absentia for most of last week, but just as the rain that has recently fallen here from the skies over the past few days, we have had some storms brewing in our home as well.

The big, green, jealousy monster has reared its ugly head so bad this week that I wanted to either run away or clone myself so each child could be content that he or she had my attention 100%.

One night when we were all watching a movie together, Caleb even suggested through gestures and his limited English that they should cut me in half, so he and Micheline could each have a part of me.

I had been sitting in a recliner and they were both vying for my lap. Neither was content with only half of a lap because after all, Mom only loves you if you have her completely to yourself....at least that is what one of my children truly seems to believe.

Thankfully, the garden is the one area where they have been working cooperatively...maybe because they can't say "that bean plant loves me best!"? :) They have been faithfully and gently christening our garden twice a day with a watering can so as not to unearth any tiny seedlings lying just below the surface of the soil. They have actually taken turns turning on the hose for each other, and filling the can and watering the garden with hardly a single argument of who did what last.

Just two days ago, Ben came running into the house early in the morning, yelling excitedly. After watching the brown earth that is our garden patch at least 5 times/day over the past week, the kids were rewarded. Our radishes had decided to sprout and won the award for the quickest plants to grow, and a second award for bringing the kids the most joy.



Today, we also have tiny sprouts of beans and peas, and one corn plant has decided to be brave enough to rear its head.

There is something exciting about Spring time. After Winter time takes away the green in the world, Spring brings it back with the promise of new life.

At times when many of my younger kids' interactions with each other feel like one long and dreary Winter, one of them will make progress by showing love and compassion instead of jealousy toward another. With that gesture of kindness, I am reminded again that Spring truly does come, even in relationships.

My youngest 3 have experienced varying amounts of trauma in their early lives before they came to our home, and I know from the stories they have shared with me that their lives before adoption must have often felt like a never-ending Winter. With love and patience and a desire to succeed, however, Spring is starting in each of their lives, and hopefully as we harvest our garden this Summer, we will also be able to harvest new growth in their relationships with each other. It sounds much more promising to me than cutting myself in half! Stay tuned...