Day 1448. Once again Sammy was up way too early, some time after 6 am, and he made enough noise to wake up his siblings. Eventually they all went upstairs to have breakfast and then stayed upstairs to play. At 9 am I also got up and went upstairs and watched them play outside, while I was waiting for my food to be ready. The kids' 9-year-old niece does gymnastics and was showing them different things. Of course they already knew how to do a somersault. They were all having lots of fun together.
At 10 am the five of us left to go to church. It was a 40-minute drive. The pastor of the church where I preached last Sunday had a pastor friend here in Denver, and we had texted. It was going to be a first contact, but we were not going to do anything. We got there a few minutes before the service started at 10:45 am. Tammy immediately picked a flower and gave it to me, then picked another one and wanted me to put it into her bow on her head, which I did. Then we went inside the building. We were welcomed by quite a few people with church T-shirts on and led to a visitor's desk. The lady there then took us to the kids' ministry, where we gave them our information, and they printed out name tags for the kids that we stuck on their backs. Then we went to the toddler room. 12 more days and they'll be 4 and in the next group up! They seemed to be the oldest in that group there. We left all three there and left to go to the sanctuary.
The service had already started, and it was very dark in the room. The sanctuary was clearly full with hundreds of people. We stayed close to the door and found two seats. The worship time was in full swing and soon ended. Then the pastor started preaching right away, and he was doing a good job. After an hour, the service was already over. We walked back to the kids' ministry to pick up the kids. Someone was holding Sammy in her arms and said that he had done great. The first thing Tammy said to me was that it had been too short. They'd heard a teaching and done some crafts besides playing.
There was a lunch provided for newcomers, and the pastor had invited us to join in so we'd get a chance to connect. They had a buffet there and a good number of tables. There were a lot of people from the church serving, and everyone was really nice. We got seats at a table, and a couple from the church joined us. Then we went through the line to get our tacos with beef, chicken and rice. Again someone was helping us to get the plates for all five of us. I was surprised at Tammy eating nearly everything on her plate. The boys didn't eat quite as much. In any case, it was really good. And we were talking to the couple at our table. When I returned from taking Emmy to the bathroom, I walked up to the pastor who was talking with someone so he'd know what I look like. He said he was gonna join us at our table, which he did some time later. I got to tell him my story, then he had to leave. He started speaking to everyone gathered, presenting who they were as a church, then opening it up for questions from the people. It was really interesting and very appealing. I liked everything I heard. Tammy and Emmy were a little restless, and I had to repeatedly ask them to be quiet.
After he was done speaking, he was talking to some people before returning to our table. We spoke a few more minutes, then it was time to say good-bye. We took a picture together before we went our different ways. Randy had talked to some other people, while I was talking to the pastor. We ended up being among the last people to leave the building, and outside the building Randy was STILL talking to people. That's how we got to hand out a few of our brochures.
It was 1:45 pm, when we drove off, and we had about half an hour to drive back to the house. I told the kids it was nap time, so they could play once we got to the house. Especially Tammy was not happy at all, but soon they were all asleep. There really wasn't enough time for them to sleep - except for Sammy who never sleeps long in the car. We decided to go to Walmart, which meant a few more minutes of driving, as we needed to go anyway. Once we got there, only Sammy was awake, and so Randy stayed with them in the car, while I went into the store. It did take me nearly 40 minutes because there were lots of people and long lines at the cash registers.
When I returned to the car, all three were awake and on their tablets. We loaded everything into the car and returned to the house, where we arrived at 3:15 pm. Nobody was home, but a few minutes later they all arrived, much to the kids' delight. They started playing together right away. As for me, I went to our room to work, enjoying being by myself, while able to hear the kids having fun. At some point it was time for dinner, and we all ate together. As usual, the kids were soon up again to play. As their niece and nephews are starting school tomorrow, they were going to bed early, and so we all went to our room before it was 7 pm. All the kids then got to be on their tablets until 8 pm. Then it was time to get them ready for bed. They showered, I read them a bedtime story and prayed for them. Then it was time for bed. It was going on 9 pm. And they fell asleep rather quickly; I only stayed really briefly with them before returning to my computer.
Now it's not even midnight, and I'm the only one awake. Last night I thought I was gonna go to bed early, but then I did some planning for the months ahead instead, which kept me up. Hopefully not today.
