It was sooo refreshing to be at church today! Not so much in a lot of ways, actually. Brady would probably disagree, as he sat out of most of the service with a tired baby girl who refused to sleep and an incredibly grumpy toddler. I promise, I offered to help more than once, but he gave me the opportunity to sit through the service, kid free. It was a lovely gift, and I took it.
This morning was good for my heart. I felt heavy when I woke up this morning. I looked awful, and felt awful. Maybe the devils way of trying to discourage me from going. Good thing we pulled it together! We even got there a little early.
Dekker was horrendously overwhelmed by everyone. It didn’t take long before Brady opted to sit in the back with him. I stood up in the sharing time and asked for prayer for Dekker’s upcoming surgery. Its still just over two weeks away, but I made a joke about our horrible track record of making it to church, so we should give everyone the date already, in case we weren’t in attendance before then.
Well, wow. Our pastor prayed so beautifully for us. They went through the same thing with one of their kids way back, and he and his wife can really relate. He spoke very encouraging words. I cried. So did a few others – some friends, my family. It was lovely. I felt enveloped in people’s compassion and love and hope for us.
Church went on as it tends to do, and once it was over, Dekker came whipping out from the back room, happy as a clam! He went running around with my mom right away, and even pulled out his charming ways when one of his favorite church ladies came over for smooches. Sometimes, when approached by someone “new,” he spooks. Being that we haven’t been in church for so long, I thought his reaction to anyone would be really, really loud. But he surprised us nicely 🙂 One day, hopefully very soon, he will have the clarity he needs.
As if today wasn’t full enough, we are biting the bullet. Brady and I are taking the kids swimming tomorrow. I know that seems like a happy family event to many people, but we are making a point to take him swimming in an effort to learn about water. The few times we’ve went during the morning/daytime, its been very quiet and not very busy at all. I’m really hoping that is what we find tomorrow. Dare I say, I expect tomorrow to be a complete disaster. Not that Dekker couldn’t surprise us all and warm up to it and have fun, but I won’t be surprised if its a fight the whole time. But if it is, thats ok, and we’ll just keep trying. We’ll probably go in on Tuesday too, and see what the reaction is. WE’re all learning.
Speaking of swimming, I tried Laela’s swimsuit on her for the first time today 🙂 Who wouldn’t want to go swimming with her??!
I’m excited for tomorrow, but at the same time, I’m totally not. Should be interesting!
Off to take my nice, warm, bubbly “swim” for the night. Sleep tight!