First Sunday at Church

Sunday, September 30, 8:15 p.m.! (a little earlier tonight!)

Well, since I didn't post yesterday, I thought I'd mention our activities on Saturday first. We started off with sleeping in, well, Mommy and the kids, that is. Daddy was up early to head to Game Day and the UO Ducks game. After Daddy got up, Beth and Jack crawled into bed with Mommy and slept another 3 hours.

We had a leisurely morning getting breakfast and then headed over to Grandma Louise's house to pick tomatoes and apples and corn. Beth and Jack are becoming more familiar with her yard and did a great job entertaining themselves while Mommy was in the garden. They piled into the wagon to help pick corn and squash and we sampled the apples straight from the tree! They had to try both red and yellow delicious. They ate half of each so I don't know which is the favorite. Grandma fed us lunch so when we got home, Jack laid down for his nap and Mommy and Beth had quiet time in the living room.

After Jack woke up, we headed out again, this time for the Stephensons' house. When we arrived, Melanie greeted us at the door in her new angel costume and played the perfect hostess. She had all kinds of ideas for things to play with Beth (since she already has two brothers, she didn't seem to worry too much about Jack :)). The kids were shy at first as usual, but after a while, the toys warmed them up. Soon Beth was following Melanie back to her bedroom and playing with her stuffed animals. Later, I turned around to see that Beth had the angel wings and halo on and was happily following Melanie around. Jack seemed content to play with the cars and play guitar and of course was very interested in his snack--Doritos. We stayed for a couple of hours and it seemed they had a really good time. By that time, Daddy had come home from the football game and called to say that someone had left a dinner for us on the front doorstep. Time to head home.

Today, Sunday, we awoke to the alarm clock. Mommy hurried to get herself ready for church before the kids woke up. I got most of it done. :) Anyway, we headed out for Sunday School, thinking that the attendance would be lower and it would be easier for them to adjust to a new situation. They were very quiet and watched everything from the sidelines. Both Mommy and Daddy stayed with them and helped them know what to do. Since it was fifth Sunday, there was no children's class during the service, so they came into the sanctuary with us. We were pleasantly surprised by how well-mannered they were. They were fairly quiet and colored on the church bulletins to keep themselves occupied. After church, we had many friends come over to greet us and congratulate us. Jack and Beth seemed oblivious, for the most part, which was good. That way, they played more naturally and didn't hang their heads down. When they saw some of the other kids playing on the pews, they caught on pretty fast and enjoyed a game of peek-a-boo with Taylor W, a middle school student who helps in the preschool class. Out in the foyer, Miss Dee, their SS teacher came to find them and give them their take-home bags. When she got down on her knees and played peek-a-boo with Jack it really broke the ice and he started giggling. Hopefully they will remember next week and not feel quite so shy.

After church, we decided to try out Mexican food. So, we headed for Don Juan's, one of our favorite restaurants. At first neither one wanted to try the chips and salsa, but as soon as they did, they didn't want to stop! Jack had to guzzle some water when his mouth felt hot, but he still kept on eating it.

Back home, Mommy and Jack took a nap together. (Being up in the middle of the night really wears you down!) Then, Uncle Shawn and Aunt Jocelyn came down for a visit. We had a really fun afternoon playing, and the kids seemed very comfortable with them. They asked to be lifted up and held and of course they got tickled! There was lots of laughter and cuteness! When it was time for them to go, both of the kids spontaneously did the "wai" (the polite greeting with your hands folded together in front of you and a slight bow). We haven't seen them do that without prompting to very many people.

Well, tonight Daddy did bedtime, hence my earlier post. They knew it was coming so they started to protest and cry, but he read a couple of books with them. We are hoping to be able to eventually read a Bible story with them. When he laid them down and left, however, they went into hysterics. After a minute or so, Daddy went back to check, and discovered Calvin, the cat, sitting on the bed staring at them. I guess they're a little uncomfortable with that! With Calvin out of the picture, their cries slowly became whimpers and eventually they could be heard just having a quiet conversation. Mitch said when he peeked in, Beth was patting Jack's head to console him. And now I don't hear a peep. Whew! Hopefully they'll sleep the night through.

More about the language...we are doing fairly well communicating the basics with them, like "Does it hurt?" "Do you want some water/food?" "Come here." "Do you have to go to the toilet?" "I love you." If all else fails, we look up words in the dictionary to tell them something. Unfortunately, it doesn't work the other way so we often don't know what they are saying. But, they are also pretty good at pointing and showing us what they want or need. We try to communicate our love and acceptance of them through hugs and kisses and a positive tone of voice, and they seem to just soak it up.

What treasures they are! God has such an amazing plan for each of their lives! As I prayed for them last night, I realized that right now, the only Jesus they know is what we show them. I long for the day when we can introduce them to Him. I hope and pray that when we do, they will recognize Him. It is much like the photo album that we sent to them with pictures of us and our home. When they finally met us for the first time, the social worker said that they really did recognize us! So for now, they get snapshots of Jesus. And someday soon they will meet Him!