Why my kids share a room

I’ve always wanted a guest bedroom.  Our first apartment had a single bedroom.  The hand-me-down pullout sofa was a poor excuse for guest quarters.  Our first house was smaller than our first apartment with 2 tiny bedrooms and the same pullout sofa.  Then we lived with my parents in a modest 3-bedroom 1.5 bath that was also a home daycare.  Yes, that was 6 (sometimes 7 if you count my brother when we was home from college) people sharing a shower.  Accommodating guests in any of the aforementioned living situations was pretty much out of the question since we could barely accommodate ourselves.  When we were searching for our new house, I really wanted to have a place that would make us available to host whomever God sent our way.  It also was convenient to have a place for my in-laws who visit often and don’t come all the way to Maryland to hangout in a hotel.

Enter the perfect house for everyone’s checklist (my parents ended up moving in with us this time around).  We have 3 bedrooms on our side.  I was determined about that guest room.  You do the math.  Yup, our three kids share a room.  Had you asked me 5 years ago if I thought they would still be sharing a room at ages 8, 6, and 4, I probably would have said no.  But they still are and they love it and we still have a guest bedroom.

The guest bedroom has been home to my in-laws on many weekends and my brother for a  year.  Its most recent occupants, the Polks, left this morning and the house is a little too quiet and the bathroom counter a little too clean in their absence. 

Aside: The Polks are a family from St. Louis who are raising support to become go on staff long term at the Ethiopia ACT Project.  The ACT Project has made a huge impact in its surrounding community.  We think it’s because it utilizes the indigenous population so well (and it’s obviously received a huge blessing from God).  You should take a second and go check it out.  Now.

Welcome back. 

Hosting a family who you’ve only briefly met always has its risks, but boy are we glad we stepped out in faith this time!  Having the Polks was such a huge blessing to our family.  It was a blast having a toddler in the house again–especially since he wasn’t my responsibility 🙂  The kids couldn’t get enough of him. (Read:  Always armed with a new toy, they continually talked in high-squeaky voices inside his personal space bubble.)  Patrick and I thoroughly enjoyed our late night conversations and really appreciated Jason and Liz’s sense of humor.  I loved seeing how our kids navigated sharing our space and having to be flexible.  I figure if we got through our first full week of school with house guests, a “normal” week should be a breeze.  Or it will be awful since my kids are clearly extroverts and they may shrivel up to nothing without house guests.

This should give you an idea of how much they enjoyed them–Mia cried when I told her when they were leaving. 

And that is why my kids share a room.