Ok, so our kids are finally adjusting to the Sunday School drop off, but sometimes our church going experience reads more like an adventure novel than a soul renewing worship experience.
Take a few weeks ago for example:
We decided to go to the Saturday evening service at Grace Fellowship because a friend of mine was singing and on Sunday we were going to Christ Church because Jeremy was playing (double points for church twice?!). Anyhow, it all starts after nap time around 4pm. As if waking them all, dressing them, giving them bottles and changing diapers wasn't enough to accomplish in a half hour, add to it that every single one of them likes to messy their diaper AFTER they are fully dressed with coats and shoes and ready to head out the door. Anyone else with me on this one?
So after changing six diapers, we finally race out the door to beat THE CLOCK. Yes, the clock. Why? Because exactly 15 minutes after service starts, at 5:15pm, the doors to the nursery are locked, and our church going experience turns into us trying to catch Rex's message on the screens in the lobby inbetween chasing kids and feeding hungry mouths. Not fun, we've tried :). Thankfully, on this occasion we pull into the parking lot and notice that the little light on the door is still GREEN! That means go! Dodging churchgoers in the parking lot, we screatch to a halt in front of the doors and I quickly prop it open with one foot while waiting for Jeremy to hand me babies one by one. As I'm propping, a lovely volunteer comes to the door, locks it, but lets me remain there propping it as we unload our tiny entourage.
So we get in, drop the kids off to their respective classes with minimal fuss, and head into the service. Now this is where it gets exciting. All parents get these little sign in stickers that match the kids you dropped off, mine end in 46, 47, and 48. The mission is to NOT see your little number flash on the big screen indicating that one of your children is screaming so loud the choir can hear them. Crossing my fingers I stuff the little stickers in my pocket and hope for the best. I think we made it through about 10 minutes before I see the first number. I dash back through the sanctuary with that guilty/embarrased nod of "yes, that is my number up there" and darn, Jada just wasnt' having it in the nursery. So I pick her up, and bring her into the service with a large amount of random chew things, straws, cups, etc. Ten minutes later, another number flashes, so I hand off Jada to Jeremy, do the embarrased/guilty dash again, which is doubled because this number is ALSO mine,and run out to pick up Michael, who apparently never settled down from the initial drop off but they were holding out hope. We now have two toddlers in the service with us, ripping up bulletins and chucking straws. I expend so much energy into entertaining them so they don't become the loud kid, that I pretty much miss the entire message.
But hey, two out of three, not too bad!
P.S. Special thanks to all the nursery volunteers that love on our little guys every week - you are the best!
4 comments:
this is great!! i loved it - i could definitely see you doing all of that! this sat i passed by the KC classes and 2 of your 3 were being held by workers but seemed to be happy :)
haha, it was better this week!
i have the cd if you want it :)
we should set the tape room up as a play area!
Yeah, been there, done that. Actually not. My kids are angels....so....yeah.
BUT there's a song i know my friends like to listen to on days when their kids are being difficult. It's a pretty good one actually. Maybe you've heard it before.
http://www.ilike.com/artist/Plumb/track/Me
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