creature of habit

that's me. lehr can testify to the amount of things that i will accept and live with, simply because i always have. for example, we had an end-of-hose sprayer with ten different options of spray. all last year i only used two of the options because they were the only two that worked without significant leaking. even though I would have benefitted from having access to the other options, i never replaced it. maybe it was laziness, maybe cheapness, but mostly i just got used to it and accepted it for what 'normal' was. this is played out again and again in my life.

one might think that a great shift in 'normal' would be traumatic to a creature of habit like myself, but i find that most of the time, the idea of changing isn't something i welcome, but the actual change doesn't take long for me to adjust to. i think i don't resist once the change is inevitable because to do that would prolong the 'in limbo' part. that's the part where i feel a lack of ownership over the circumstances. like i'm driving someone else's car or using someone else's computer.

that's a long winded way to say that after a few days of being short on patience with my family (likely due to the underlying stress that we were (are??) feeling that first week with all of the uncertainty, all of us, even the creature of habit mom, have been able to find a lot of lemonade stands within this lemon farm.

Maddux's Heart for Service

I honestly wonder how many times I've blogged about this... I do know that whatever the number, it pales in comparison to the amount of times I take note of it, which is likely a fraction of the number of examples in each day. I know this sounds braggy, but for the oh so many times I get it wrong, especially with Maddux, by pointing out the ways she doesn't do what I think she should do with her time and energy, I want to be sure and document how much right I see in her heart.

I have to remind myself that what I think I want for her might not line up with what God has planned for her.

My girl...she loves, she loves kids, she loves serving kids. Since leaving Kids' Ministry, as a participant, last May, she has probably only attending the 'big' service with us 2 or 3 times, one of those being the Sunday that she was baptized. Every week she volunteers in the Preschool Ministry, willingly. She is now a volunteer that gets signed up about once/month, but whether signed up or not, Maddux reports to the coordinator when we arrive each Sunday and she has never been turned away.

It's not just that she volunteers though. Anyone can do that...even I even do that. But my heart is not in it even half as much as Maddux's is. She loves working with those kids, and not just the fun parts. She will crawl on the ground to pick up goldfish, usher kids to the restroom, pick up mini crayon bits off of the table again and again and again...none of it phases her. I've seen her patiently cutting out a craft for the kids, while carrying on a conversation with one kid to her side, while another sits on her lap, hugging her for comfort. All the while, she is calm as a cucumber and so in her element. And she seeks out the ones who need the most, whether it's manifesting in tears or acting out, she's usually right on it.
I want to be her when I grow up.

About once a month I am approached by an adult at church that works with her for the first time, or maybe just talks to me about it for the first time, and they 'just have to tell' me how awesome she is or what a good worker she is or how great she is with the kids. Sometimes they'll ask me what I did to help her be so great. This is the part where I seriously laugh out loud because I had nothing to do with it. Seriously - she is the nurturer I never was (even at my best). This is all God, growing her gift for nurturing and serving, and it brings me so so SO much joy to be able to watch.

Mother Daughter Bible Study

Just before Thanksgiving last year, Maddux and I started attending a Mother-Daughter Bible study. A friend and I were walking around the neighborhood one morning when she told me about how God had been putting something on her heart. As she spoke about this idea to do an intentional mother-daughter group, I was blown away because it was something that had been stirring inside of me as well.

So the two of us got together for a few planning sessions with journals and Bibles, and we planned out three or four 'lessons' with ideas for many more. The other mom already had a group to invite in mind; we wanted to stick to girls/moms very close by (like, in only two neighborhoods) that were all right around 10 years old. We sent the invites, created journals for the girls, and prepared for the first meeting. Low and behold, 10 girls and their moms showed up! That first night, we had great discussion, Bible-page-flipping, and lots of girly giggles (and hot cocoa, of course).

Since then, we have met twice a month, and I am so so grateful for it. Maddux loves going, and she is an awesome participant when we are there. In fact, one of the times, she voluntarily led us in a closing prayer. I love the intentional time I get to spend with my girl, I love the way we're able to connect to other girls and moms in our immediate area, and I love how God is growing both Maddux and I in leading, participating, and planning.

Eli's Big Trip

Eli received the coolest of invitations this summer: the chance to go to Ohio for a week as a praise band member and junior counselor for a summer camp. Beyond that, he would be traveling with a family from church and a few other kids.

Oh, and by kids I mean teenagers. Full on, 15+, all in high school and college teenagers. (Just as a reminder, Eli is 11.)

There is no real worry here; these teenagers are good kids, kids we've seen grow up and kids Lehr has spent a lot of time with in various capacities at church. But it is a whole week (SEVEN days) where Eli will not be with us, and with no means of communication. The mother traveling with them asked if Eli had a device (he doesn't) because she wanted to warn me that he wouldn't have access to call or text because the service at their camp is spotty at best.

The main job Eli had was to play drums in the worship band with the group of kids that he played with for VBX (most of the same songs too). When he wasn't doing that, he was helping the counselors out. I assume that mainly meant comic relief as the ages of kids attending were 3-5th grade. Hopefully that allowed for the campers to be able to related to Eli better since he is barely older and likely not taller.

Eli had a blast. An absolutely amazing time. He was quick to tell us that his curfew was midnight each night, that the campers had to be in their cabins with their counselors at 10, but he and the band and some others got to stay up later around the campfire and playing basketball and whatnot. I think he could have slept for a week when he returned! So much growing up in such a short time!

Eli's Baptism

Eli was away at camp this week; this particular camp is a very bare-bones Christian camp that we've come to love. Last night Lehr and I got to run out for a quick dinner date. Towards the end of the night a call came through on my phone from a number I didn't recognize. Thankfully I picked it up because it was the pastor at the camp calling to inform me that Eli had chosen to be baptized at the end of camp the following day.

So. Cool.

So we drove up in anticipation of seeing our boy publicly accepting Christ. Eli and a few other boys each took a turn walking into the pool with different counselors before praying, exchanging words and dunking. So so cool. We didn't see this coming, so it was even cooler than I could have imagined.

 

UPDATE: It took me a year to figure it out, but I wanted to get something for Eli to commemorate the life changing decision he made. He received a leather band from Lehr and I this summer with the following words etched into it:

07.14.16   I will walk in Your truth   Psalm 86:11

Eli loves it and has worn it nonstop. 

Overnight Camp

Eli and Maddux are in a magic summer of qualifying for two separate camps that are co-ed and target both of their ages for the same week/session. Given that each was a camp they both really wanted to attend, and their short overnight stays, we allowed both.

This past week found them at Woodlands camp in North Georgia. We were fortunate enough to line up our camp session with the Marshall boys (meaning all three boys got to bunk in the same cabin with 10 other boys). As it turns out, Maddux didnt' get to interact much with the boys at all, but she still had a blast. She hugged all of the girls (12 others) in her cabin before we left today, and she exchanged addresses with at least three so they could write each other. Maddux also told me that the girl in the bed above hers has a brother with Down syndrome. Apparently she had a picture of her family, and Maddux asked her if he has T21. What a cool connection!

Both kids went on and on about the fun time they had playing outdoor games and doing the water slide and the zip line and and and.... Maddux shared half a dozen 'cheers' with us that her team chanted each day; she was totally in her element.

Eli. He had a great time. Especially because he was with his best friend. I asked him about a photo I saw of a few kids sitting with counselors one-on-one. He smiled and said, "Oh yeah, that was for those of us that wanted to be saved."

Wait...what? We haven't really talked about that a whole lot. We've talked about baptism, but neither has expressed much of an interest at this point. They both seem 'good' with their relationship with God, and it wasn't something we have wanted to push at all.

Eli informed me that after chapel one day the counselors said that if you wanted to stay behind and talk with someone about being saved, you could. He opted to do just that. So so cool...he was all smiles talking about it. And now Maddux is asking about getting baptized. Life is good.

All four kids agreed that this was the most fun camp they've been to, and they want to return next year.