Day One Hundred and Seventy-Eight

Actual Date: Sunday, September 19, 2010

Woke up with this lovely rash on my arm. Apparently someone or something latex touched me during my hospital stay. This happens every time latex touches me. In fact, this is what my face looked like earlier in the week from wearing those dumb goggles. Lovely huh?

Oh and it itches like no other!

And I had this little beauty on my other arm. It must have been from one of the times they took my blood because my IV was in the other arm.

On this day we woke up and went to Church. I had to go. I needed to go. I was so grateful to be alive and healthy after running all those what ifs through my head all night on Friday night.

After the service told them that we had a change of plans and that we would in fact be there for the New Members Meeting.

Now here's where I can tell God had his hand in the whole thing again... The New Members Meeting is in done in two week sections. The first week our group was packed. This week however we were the only ones. The second meeting is lead by one of our Pastors, Brian, and he was as shocked as we were. So instead of going into one of the big rooms to finish up, he took us up to his office so it would be more intimate.

We spent the next hour and a half or so really getting to know each other and hear all about how the church was started and where they see it going. We also discussed where we could be of service to the Church. I told him that I would really like to get into the Children's ministry because now that I'm not teaching anymore, I miss being in the classroom sometimes. He gave me the name of the person in charge and he said "Make sure you find me on Sunday and I will make sure you two meet. She has been really swamped lately and I know she's been praying for someone to come along and help her." Brian said he would like to help on the set up team so he gave him information on that as well. We were both excited!

At the end of the meeting Pastor Brian asked if there was anything he could be praying about for us. That's when we told him about our crazy weekend. He just sat there and stared at me. I guess he hadn't noticed the bruises and rash before that point. haha. He immediately got out his phone and gave us his number and put both of ours into his. He told Brian "If anything happens I want you to call me immediately. I want to know what's going on and how we can help."

Like I said before, I LOVE this church. People care about people. God has really taken care of us. When we decided to move back to Texas there was a little bit reservation in both Brian and I because we would be leaving behind all family connections. How would we handle three kids and daily life without having family anywhere nearby? If we moved to Texas our closest family would be in Illinois! How is that going to work? What if there's an emergency?!

But we took a leap of faith, praying all the way. And I'm telling you we have made some awesome friendships here. I have never met so many great people in one place in all my life. We attended many churches here before finding the one that we are currently in. And now all these little things are happening that show us that this is for sure where God wants us to be.

Fast forward to today: I did meet with Jami, the lady in charge of the Children's Ministry at our Church. I have been working in the infant and the 2 and 3 year old class. It has been a blast. We just got a great new curriculum to teach and it's been really awesome to be a part of a team that has a passion for our youth. I've always strongly felt that the Children's Ministry is one of the most important parts of the church. If you think about it, most of our earliest memories of "church" are from our childhood. And never underestimate the power of a child. My girls amaze me with their questions sometimes. And I think working in Kidridge has really helped me better answer those questions because I have a deeper understanding of what they are learning on the weekend. And I'm learning too! To be able to teach something you have to really understand it yourself. It's been a great experience.