Another kid?

This is our newest addition to our family. Clarissa came to us by way of being my niece's friend. Clarissa was getting ready to go into college, but felt she needed a better environment to live in. She left the old one behind without having had the convenience of finding a new place first. She came to us with a few boxes of her worldly possessions. She is enjoying the opportunity to be smothered with children. Her aspiration is to be trained in a vocation for Early childhood. That is a very large arena, but right now she is focusing on the basics of college.

We enjoyed the first two weeks with her so much that we offered to let her rent a room for the next six months and possibly longer. We hope that she will continue to feel a part of the family and we hope to always have her as a part of our lives.

I got my first exposure to college as a parent of the student this month. I thought it would be at least a decade down the road, but this last month we have wrestled financial aid, looking for an apartment, looking for a job, helping her to locate important vital records as she had to leave those behind in her haste to leave. Did I mention having to figure out a schedule? Now, as a parent, I of course encourage her to take the lead in all of these whilst I stand behind her (often with the twins in tow) and remind her of questions to be asked. I really want her to gain her confidence in herself, but honestly I don't want her/us to have to wait in that looooong line again!

It makes me realize that I assumed that the seasons in life would come chronologically to me as a parent. However, it seems that is not always the case! Now I am trying to balance having an adult child/college student with 6 small kids. It is challenging but good.

Sasa is my nick name for Clarissa. It is taken from the end of her name and mixed with sis(t)er. The kids think it is great having a big sister. I was a little concerned about AnnaLisa, being the oldest, would feel kicked out of place. I asked AnnaLisa about it and she said she loved the idea of having Clarissa being our sister.

For me logistically it has been challenging. We moved AnnaLisa to join Maggie in the full bed on the bottom of the bunk beds and Clarissa is on the top bed. This is the easiest change. There is no real room for Clarissa in closets or dressers, so most of her stuff is in a corner in our family room. This is a spot where the kids, the boys especially, would hide and play. Another challenge is adding three eaters to my meal planning. No, Clarissa does not eat that much, but the twins are finally eating table food and the timing happened to be right when Clarissa joined us, so we went from six to nine eaters almost over night. That is a 50% increase! I am not use to having no leftovers and I am finding out that most of my lunches whether for me at home, or the kids packed lunches, were based off of leftovers. So now I am trying to make enough for all of us at dinner and suddenly I have to make lunches now too!

With all this said, we are tickled to have Clarissa in our home. She really enjoys being part of our loving family and when my niece asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she told her, "it is too late, I already have what I wanted...a family to be a part of".

Welcome to the Park Clan. We love ya!

This post is when Clarissa was playing "Candy land" with AnnaLisa. This is AnnaLisa's imaginary interactive game which only relies on the board game for inspiration. That is why Clarissa was wearing the crown. Rosie loves watching Clarissa send texts, especially when she sees the envelope icon. Clarissa loves to text, so Rosie gets that opportunity now and again.