Country Kids

In the summer of 2005 we moved from Ohio to Southern Indiana. To do this we had to sell two houses in Ohio and buy one in Indiana. God is good!! He allowed us to sell and then buy a house without having to pay a real estate agent.

Finding a house to buy proved to be harder than we had originally thought. First of all, we needed a house big enough to sleep ten people. Your average three bedroom, two bath ranch would not work. Five bedrooms would be about the least we could work with; seven would be preferable. That narrowed the search down quite a bit.

Then there were other considerations we needed to keep in mind as we moved with our little RADlets. They have a tendency to be very (how should I say this?.....) dramatic. When they go into a rage they try to get other adults on their side. They would love nothing more than for another adult to come "rescue" them from their parents when they are being disciplined. So, they sometimes scream so loud and shrill that it sounds as if they are being murdered when they are punished.

Our RADlets have been know to scream things like, "Stop! You're hurting me!!" when we are taking them by the hand leading them to their room. Or "You won't let me to eat!" when we tell them they can eat what we fixed for dinner or not eat but we aren't going to make anything else.

The things they say and the way they say them are disturbing. If I were walking by a house and heard this kind of screaming, I might call child protective services. So, we made the decision to live in the country where our neighbors wouldn't be close enough to hear the screaming, think we are abusing the children and call 911. That narrowed it down even further.

We found two places we thought would work. One was a little further out and had more bedrooms; the other had a larger living area and an out building that we were going to turn into a "little red school house". In the end we choose the one further out, mainly because of price. Looking back we can see that God lead us to this house. It had a room right off the master bedroom that was perfect for bringing home my "little brown baby boy":) and it wasn't close to neighbors at all, so our RADlets could scream in their rage without us parents having to worry about calls to CPS.

One of our RADlets was a runner. Not that he ran track or cross country as a sport. He took off when he got mad. Living in the country was a blessing for him. He could run into the woods and hide for a while without hurting anyone or anyone hurting him. And his screaming didn't bother the wildlife....some just joined with him.

Now we are to a point that if we moved I would not think twice about getting a house in town. My most severe RADlet is residential treatment and my others have healed to the place where this is not even an issue. Amazing!! How far we have come!

I was sharing this with the children the other day, hoping it would encourage them to know how much they had improved. One of my girls, turns to me and says, "Thanks for the complement, mom, but if it's just the same with you, I'd like to stay in the country!"