Most families follow norm in the way they transition from husband and wife to parents. The traditional path is to get married, then wait an appropriate amount of time (generally at least 9 months), and then have a baby. But not us, we don't like to do things the easy/normal way. We laughed at tradition when we said "what the heck, lets adopt twin 7 year olds who have experienced more cruelty in their life than we can even imagine. Lets skip all the steps and jump straight into the role of parenting elementary school students." By far the craziest thing we have ever done... but also the best.
Its amazing how quickly your motherly instincts kick in. I was always one of those people that could sleep through nearly anything, but it is astonishing how quickly you wake up to a cry,  a door slamming, or a 7 year old standing 2 inches from your face in pitch black darkness. I had no idea how easy it would become to distinguish the sound of someone jumping verses falling out of bed.
I never knew how much fun it was to go Christmas shopping or sneak in at night as the "Tooth Hippo" (as you are probably learning, we don't like to follow tradition). I understand how so many people lose their mind, but cannot wrap my brain around the fact that someone would allow their children to be taken away from them.
Time does not hold the same value it did before I was a mom. 10 minutes used to be enough time to run into the grocery store, pick up the necessities for a meal, and be on my way. Now, this looks more like (at least) a 30 minute stop requiring enough patience to turn around 15 times and say "keep up" or "no we cannot get a 3 liter of orange soda ". Loads of laundry and grocery bills did not double because the size of our family did, they increased exponentially.
These days, I am getting a little more acquainted with waking at 7 am every day of the week and being home by 8:30 to prepare for bedtime. I frequently summit laundry mountains, yet never conquer it. I have cleaned toothpaste from the sink more times than I understand. I only hope I can develop tolerance to the smell of throw up or the fact that the toilets never get flushed. All in all, parenting has given me a completely new set a challenges,  but a kiss goodnight from a couple of 7 year olds make it all worth while.