Meshing people together in order to create family just is not easy. In fact it's difficult and more often than not unrewarding.
One of our goals from the beginning with our orphan care plan was to create a space where the children would be free to express themselves. Not really a normal situation here in Kenya, where children have very little to no say in what happens to them. This is compounded greatly when that child is an orphan. They do, go, wear, eat, and everything else that they are commanded to do.
Certainly children need boundaries and have to be told what to do. Yet as they grow and mature more and more freedom is needed to be able to mold them into functioning adults.
However there is a downside to all this freedom and security we have given these children; attitude.
Personally I don't really care about attitudes nor who has them. I live my life, for the most part, oblivious to how people feel. I'm not saying that's right, it's just who I am. Kate on the other hand really cares about the children's attitudes and feelings.
Now that they know we will not get rid of them for bad behavior some of our children have become more bold in their acting out. Which makes for more stress on Mom, Kate. Which in turn creates more stress for the rest of us.
Yet we are not giving up, and still love these children very much. Just this morning Kate was standing up for our most ill behaved child. Sometimes you have to be the one who first loves.
