My Sweet Little Helper

The Lord really does know the perfect timing. If it had been up to me I would have had another child when Olivia was around 2 years old. JP and I had even started the adoption process when she was 15 months old knowing full well he would be deployed. Looking back now I can see that I would have been totally overwhelmed, and Olivia would not have been ready...not to mention the fact that JP would not have even been home! But according to God's perfect will we never were able to complete what needed to be done.

But now, He is lining things up perfectly so far. He's even had to give us little motivations along the way to get our slow minds in gear. It's funny, when we were adopting Olivia it took a mere month for us to turn around our paperwork. How long this time? Well, we received the packet in June and as of today it is still not completely in...though it will be hopefully by tomorrow...and yet here we are anticipating the arrival of our son a week from tomorrow! God is so good! JP is home. And Olivia is as ready as any 3 year old could be.

With her active imagination, Olivia loves to act out stories. Most books we read turn into a little play performed in the kitchen...of course she assigns JP and I our roles. Well, ever since the announcement of a baby brother she has been acting out what she thinks it might be like. In my previous post I described how she acted out the trip to Utah to pick him up. Today she was acting out helping me with diapers...and we did it over and over and over again. And each time it brought a big smile to her face. It went something like this:

I set up the bassinet and changing station in our bedroom already stocked with a few diapers and wipes so we will be set to go once we get home. So Olivia grabs the diapers from the station, leaves the room, and tells me to stay there. At first I wasn't sure what she was doing, but then she came walking back into the room saying, "Here's your diapers." Then she proceeded to count them out as she put them back in their place. I caught on to the act quickly, fortunately, and started pretending like I was in distress and in desperate need of some diapers. When she would walk into the room, hands full of diapers, I would say, "Oh thank you Olivia! You are such a good helper!" Then I would bend down and give her a kiss. She loved it! I loved it! Praying all this excietment carries into reality!