Of Mice and Molars

I made every attempt to "quiet" life in preparation for bringing Selah and Bella home. I required the children to sacrifice as many outside activities as reasonable, so we could focus on our  home-life and bonding. The crazy thing is that craziness doesn't take breaks for bonding. Since coming home we have dealt with all  the little annoyances that life has to offer,  like faulty heat, home building projects, broken solar panels, complaining renters and the last few days -  mice and molars. 

Once the weather turned cold, the field mice decided to move in. This has happened every fall, but this year we have been inhabited by an exceptionally smart mouse colony. We have set countless "live" and death traps and only caught a few mice. Over and over, the mice have licked the mouse trap clean without setting it off. (One of the two that did get caught, JD left in a bag on the kitchen table for me to discover upon awakening, but we aren't going to bring that up because it might prompt me to admit that I am absolutely unable to control the screaming that comes from my mouth upon sight of a mouse. I don't know why this is; I'm just afraid of them.)

Thanks to the mice, we have had three major unload the pantry and throw any anything chewed days. Day three led us to purchase enough Rubbermaid that the pantry is now pretty much mouse proof. My large bags of flour and oatmeal, as well as the potatoes, reside in the middle of the school room floor until I am assured that the coast is clear. 

The school table - conducive to learning wouldn't you say?

This isn't the "let's have everything organized and run on a schedule" that I planned for the girls' first weeks at home.

Moving on to molars, we knew from the first picture friends took for us that Selah had some teeth decay. It is far worse than that, however, every tooth in her mouth is decayed. We are going to have to correct it in the children's hospital; they are going to cap everything in her mouth. The blessing is that it appears it will be filed under medical, instead of dental, so our out of pocket expense will be far, far less.

See those teeth?

I'll be honest, if our biggest challenges were mice and molars, I would be far less stressed. We are also battling some big issues with children that have only come more to light since our return from Africa. I would say that I'm a very open person and friends that know me in real life know that our family has challenges. However, when it comes to "blog land," it becomes much harder to share the daily struggles that we face, because any reference to any issue creates a greater issue with the person I am referring to, even when I leave them anonymous. I am sometimes afraid that the inability to really admit our challenges gives a perception that life at our house is smooth and easy, which is so not the case. While I can not say much more, please know that families like ours don't adopt because we have parenting figured out; it is only because we still know that we are a better family than no family at all!