It's the last day of February already. I've completed my homework that was due tonight and baby girl is sleeping so I'm taking a few minutes to update the blog!
I don't remember when this took place but Adi won a ride in this Hummer stretch limo for her efforts selling cookie dough and such during a fund raiser in the fall. The kids you see in the picture are the only ones in the entire school that got to go for the ride so it was really quite a big deal!
Adilyn and her classmate C (just his first initial to protect his identity) were the only Kindergarteners in the limo. They were both a little nervous about riding with the big kids at first but once they got in there they had nothing but fun. The kids even got to enjoy some candy while they were out and about.
So Adi and C. It's funny, really, that these two got to go on this ride together. It's pretty cool, really, that they are even friends. You see, for the first couple of months of school Adi and C did NOT get along. Not one bit. As a matter of fact Adi begged me to home school her because of this little guy! But instead of pulling her out of school and taking her away from her conflict I chose to do something else. We prayed together. For C. We prayed that he and his family would be blessed. That love and joy would fill their home. And after some time I started hearing more stories about her fun times with C than I did about her "best friend" B! Praise God! Enemies became friends and I give all the credit to our magnificent God and His wonderful ways.
So we couldn't resist some playtime in the snow. This is one of the two times Chloe has worn her cute pink winter suit. She didn't really know what to thing about the snow...
Adi insisted on making a snow woman this time. Hey, why not?
We got to celebrate Papa's birthday in January together with one of Nana's amazing red velvet cakes. The BEST red velvet cake recipe ever.
So the excitement for this month is that we have begun church shopping. It has been an extremely emotional process. I'm finding it very challenging. Being without a physical church over the past year and a half I've been able to enjoy the most anointed teachings and powerful worship online watching www.ibethel.tv and feeling like my life is changed a little bit each time. But without a church community we've begun to feel a bit lonely, wanting to share in worship and fellowship with other believers that are searching for the heart of God.
We thought we had found the church we were supposed to be at but several things happened that felt like doors closing. The first time we visited as a family I walked just outside the doors with Chloe to get her to sleep but I could still hear the message until one of the church members closed the doors. I couldn't hear anymore and I felt like the door had in some way been prophetically shut on me. I walked around outside the "sanctuary" in tears. I had been so excited to visit this church and the door was shut on me. (Just for reference sake, they did not shut the door the following week when we went back to visit again.) The next week we tried again. The words of many of the worship songs point at humanity and our imperfections rather than lifting up God and that bothers us. The pastor announced their new "building fund" and my heart sank. We'd been through this before with our previous church and didn't want to do it again.
The final straw was when Adi wanted me to come with her to Sunday school so I agreed to hang out for a few minutes until she adjusted. I watched the teacher toss a ball from one child to another in a random fashion asking each one what their favorite thing was about their week. Adi waited patiently for her turn but the teacher never tossed the ball to her. She turned to me and shrugged her shoulders and took the disappointment like a champ. I wanted to holler, "You forgot about Adi!!" but I kept my mouth shut while my heart was breaking for my little girl. Ugh. This was why I needed to be in that room with her that morning. Maybe I'm hyper-sensitive but I believe that all those things happened for a reason.
So we visited another church. One that we had heard was being influenced by the church we've been watching online. And it shows in the teaching. I'm struggling with the worship because I have very high standards but the teaching is awesome. This past Sunday we prayed for people in the church and 10 people were healed from various ailments. God is moving in this church and we are excited about that. We may have found a home but really only time will tell.
