Disappointment

How do you deal with disappointment? As a kid, it is often with pouting and anger. Not knowing how to deal with not getting what you want is hard. And as an adult, it is hard to understand what it means to feel that way about a toy. Yet that is what we have dealt with today. A little boy who found some really cool cars that he wanted, and did NOT like to be told that he couldn't get them right now. And does not know how to accept that disappointment without lashing out for an extended period of time.

Tonight Thor wanted to be held until he fell asleep. I think this is the first time EVER that he has wanted that. Even as a baby, he wouldn't fall asleep until he was in his bed. And as a toddler, he has told me to "go away so I can sleep". It was uncomfortable holding him while sitting on his bedroom floor, his boots digging into my legs. My precious, opinionated boy. Truly my only "baby".

It was a wonderful thing to hold Thor tonight. To think about disappointment. To think about a little boy who has dealt with disappointment on a level that I can never comprehend. To suffer the loss of his parents and to live in an orphanage. To travel halfway across the world with a backpack the size of what we send a preschooler to school with. How can I ever help HIM deal with disappointment?

That is what prayer is for. And we are so thankful to our God for hearing our prayers and healing our hurts. No matter how big or how little.