Independence

As the kids reach milestones in their lives, they generally do so with excitement and eagerness to move to the next stage of their development. And although Mommy enjoys watching them grow and helping them move forward in life, it seems those next stages always come with a bit of hesitation and sadness for me.

Our kids have shared a room since they were born and now at the age of 4 and 7, they are moving into their own rooms. Because I used to work from home our 4th bedroom has always been used as my office. While I originally wished we had a bigger house so they could each have their own rooms (mostly for my own purposes to decorate cute individual rooms, rather than a combined / over-crowded boy/girl room) I came to love the fact that they shared a room and especially love the sweet bond they have developed from it. I have always called it a hidden blessing. Sometimes we seek materialistic comforts, but we end up losing out on the character building and hidden blessings God has in store. For Haylie and James, sharing a room has been of the greatest blessing I could ask for. While many siblings struggle to get along, these two are best friends and partners in crime! They do everything together and truly love each other. They play imagination games constantly; they love to be silly together and we can hardly get them to sleep at night because they are constantly talking and laughing with each other. They have whole secret games and stories in their room that we find out about in bits and pieces after the fact. They are each other's confidantes and I'm honestly a little scared for their relationship after they go their separate ways. Sure their rooms will be right next to each other still but I just hope they keep the same kind of relationship they have developed as roommates when they become next-door neighbors.

I think they are certainly ready and they are looking forward to having more space where they can have some of their toys in their room - Haylie with her doll things and James with his cars and car rug. Right now at night they trade off the CD's they listen to because Haylie likes to listen stories and James likes to listen to songs; they are looking forward to having their own cd players and being able to make their own decisions without having to share.

 James moved in to Raider's old room and Raider is taking over the office. He hasn't been around much lately as he has been staying at his girlfriend's parents'  house the past few months. We went to Target and purchased some new decor for the big move. James will have a blue dinosaur room and Haylie will have a pink Owl room. Raider came by to help paint James' blue accent wall and Haylie's pink accent wall. The kids are so excited for their new independence. Mommy is quietly praying for God to guide and mold their relationship from separate rooms, just as He has done while they shared a room!