Renewal

Our family has always felt that a closeness to God didn't necessarily mean church attendance.  Daily devotions and prayer happen anywhere.  Yesterday Hannah read the daily devotion in our van while I was driving and we discussed.  But worship, obviously, is best in fellowship with many people.   But for awhile we have struggled because Tommy's needs and Hannah's interests weren't really being supported in the a way that we felt drew them closest to God while at church.  Sparked them.  Showed God's love in every action.  So today we visited another church with a friend.  The children's church program had many, many kids with Down syndrome in it which was an eye opener and made my heart feel so good.  Plus there were kids with all types of special needs receiving accomodations so they could learn the word of God easier.  The sermon that Hannah, our friend and I attended was amazing.  It. blew. me. away.  The sermon was on guilt.  And how we carry it around as baggage and it distances us from friends, spouses and God.  The pastor mentioned AA support for sobriety and the fifth step and talked about topics that hit so close to home.  Don't get me wrong though, our pastor at our church is amazing also and our family has such a connection with him.  It's just all the other pieces of hearing God's messages weren't really reaching a few of us so we wanted to try something new. 

The only drawback to the new church was that they lost Tommy.  Literally.  They have a fancy huge tracking system for kids, tags, electronic tracking and all.  But they lost him.  I checked Liam and Tommy into a preschool room, talked to the teachers and explained Tommy is a nonverbal gypsy runner.  They felt confident they could watch Tommy and met his needs.  I was 'encouraged' to attend the sermon.  Read that asked to leave and had hovered a bit too long, ha ha. 

After service, I told Hannah and her friend, we've gotta make a bee-line back to the children's room thru all the hundreds (thousand?) of church goers to grab the boys.  When I got to the room I had dropped them off in, there was a mom who said they were across the hall in a larger group to eat and worship.  My stomach fell.  I just knew Tommy would be lost in the shuffle.  And sure enough with two exits to that room and all the kids, plus teachers, plus parents coming and going.  No. Tommy.  None.  Glanced around the room and saw Liam playing but no Tommy.  Asked both teachers and each one pointed to the same area of the room, that's where we last saw him.  Hannah and I have a "glance" that means, you grab the kid you got and I'll run for the other twin.  And I ran.  Pushing past people and heading to the front of this new church to what I remembered with the glass doors that led to the parking lot.  Dry heaving.  Tears and all.  Geez, I'm such a crier.  And there, which seemed like 5 mins to get to it.  Was a dad standing with a VICE grip on Tommy and a smile on his face.  I just knew this lil guy needed someone and all his darting around meant he was looking.  Heavy sigh.  Tommy was fine.  Marched Tommy back to the preschool room where he showed some glimmer of remorse (hands over his face) and told the teachers I had found him at the front of the church.  Out of nowhere came another teacher who said she worked with special needs kids for the church and welcomed us to come to a different service where his needs could be more better addressed.  ugh.  That sounded great.  Now I'm getting a gps system even quicker than I've ever said before.

So.  All four kids, plus two teen friends and us are going to pick apples and make caramel apples this afternoon.  And I'm going to soak up the fun and sunshine and remember that God is good.  All our needs are met, and a few of our wants, and this is such a perfect day.