The art of discipline

I recently spent a few days in Austin, Texas where they like to keep things weird. It’s actually their city's slogan for those who don’t know. You can buy shirts, bumper stickers, even blankets with the “Keep Austin Weird” logo! When I was there this time I saw a house painted florescent lime green, and another with bright purple trim, both in an otherwise normal neighborhood. I also ate the BEST food ever! Masman Curry with tofu, pad thai, deep fried pickles and jalapeño hush puppies that make me drool just thinking about them. Yum! I stayed with our amazing friends Megan and Patrick and had an awesome week.

I was invited to come and share with the Life Austin church about Mission of Hope and what Kenol and I are doing here. I shared both on Sunday morning and at their Tuesday morning women’s Bible study. The Bible study was really laid back as there was a small turn out with it being just before Thanksgiving. After I shared we sat around chatting for a while and one of the women asked me how in the world we discipline 65 children. The only thing I could really say was that it is not easy!

Discipline is hard at the best of times. Throw in 65 children instead of just one or two and a number of extenuating circumstances and you will get a small glimpse of the mess we are in. The children are all different ages, from 0 – 20, each one comes from a different family background, is dealing with any number of emotional issues, has lived through extreme circumstances, etc. etc. etc. Add to that  25 different caregivers who were all raised differently with varying education levels whom are all working with the children at different times, as each mommy or daddy has specific days off, and the children are often scattered across the orphanage campus.

So, back to the question that started it all. How do we discipline the kids? To be completely honest I can’t really tell you because what we have been doing is not working. The children have learned that there isn’t much follow through if they make their mommy or daddy frustrated enough, or even better if their mommy is on her day off and a mobile mommy is looking after them.  They can also easily sneak away to another section of the orphanage when no one is looking and then just cross their fingers no one there knows they were supposed to be in their rooms. It really is a mess. Children go wild when they don’t have consistent discipline, and our children have gone wild!

So, what happens now? Well, we are getting ready to try something completely new. We will be working on developing our new discipline strategy this week and hopefully in the next week or so we will start implementing some of the changes. I would greatly appreciate prayers for some supernatural wisdom (as I am seriously lacking at this point), guidance and patience as we plan it out and begin to implement the changes we will be making.  Hopefully in the next few weeks I can write an email about how life is all rainbows and butterflies…although I have a feeling it will be snow storms and grey skies as we start cracking down!! PRAY FOR US!!!!!!

Peace, love and rainbows PLEASE!!

Rachel