Skip to main content

...of a church nap

I am sitting in the parking garage next to the hotel where our church meets with a finally sleeping baby, glad that I brought the wifi with me.

I have been trying to be thankful for the years at the Austin Stone where we had four church service times to choose from. Sometimes, however, I feel upset that we only have one option now. And that one option is exactly during Selah's first and best nap. In those moments of frustration, The Lord reminds me to be grateful that we even have a church body here. We weren't expecting to and it's been a great blessing. We've made some new friends and we love the heart of Redeemer Dubai.

Actually, most of the friends I have made have been other moms walking their babies around trying to get them to go to sleep during the service just like I do with Selah each week. Sometimes we can only give each other empathetic looks and smiles as our strollers pass and the babies exchange cries of frustration. Sometimes, by God's grace, we can stop and have a whispered chat and congratulate each other on the success of our sleeping children. But it's been a blessing, even when I can't be a part of the actual service.

Every once in awhile, Quinn takes Selah duty and I am the one who gets to go into service with Abram (who doesn't go to KIDS because he still sucks his thumb and seems to pick up any possible virus that might be present in a room full of small children). He does such a good job sitting quiet during prayer and the message and praising Jesus during the worship. Quinn has prayed fervently that he would be able to do that, and God has answered those prayers so faithfully.

Today, Selah was just refusing to fall asleep in her stroller and I thought I might die of heatstroke if I put her in the Beco. We were in a different ballroom with less places to take a sleeping baby. So, after getting to visit with a few friends, I got the keys from Quinn and headed out to the car. After driving circles around the parking garage for about 15 minutes, she finally fell asleep and I was able to park. She is hitting her 30 minute mark (her normal transient nap length time) and Quinn and Abram should be coming out of church soon.

Thankfully this is only one day a week. Every other day she willingly goes down for her naps without the use of a motor vehicle and who knows how much petrol.

And I got to listen to "Avalanche" by Hillsong on repeat for an hour. So that was nice.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

... of the tipping point

 I haven't blogged in so very long, I can't remember when and I'm not going to stop this thought train to go and check. Suffice it to say, it's been awhile. But I showed up here to share (and document) a major event in the life of our family.  Before Moses came home, I would see adoptive families posting about their kiddos' "Tipping Point Days". I recently heard it called something else as well, but I'm too tired to think of it right now. Basically, it is the day when your adopted child has been with you for as long as they were not  with you. For kids that were adopted at 1 or 2 or 3, that seems to come quickly and maybe feels eventful, but not monumental. Well, when we got custody of Moses he was about 4 years and 9 months old. I remember coming back to America and seeing someone in my adoption group post about their 2 or 3 year old's Tipping Point Day and thinking I should figure out when Moses's would be. So I did. I sat down and figured ou...

... of a patent

... or maybe, just maybe , I'm jumping the gun :) A good friend told me the other day that she and her husband have been leaving church after the worship because she can't sit for an extended time in the folding chairs. Our church did a great thing and bought inexpensive folding chairs for our sanctuary in order to 1)save money and 2)be able to use the empty room for community type events in the neighborhood during the week. This is awesome. I support their decision and so does my friend who is leaving after the worship (and watching the previous week's sermon from home). But she is pregnant. She already had back problems and now (of course!) they are worse. My back is just starting to bother me and I know that there are many pregnant women with back problems and normal people with back problems who whimper inside a little every time they enter a room and see folding chairs. Until now, I had just sort of reconciled myself to the fact that sitting in a folding chair was ...

... of the big wait.

It awaiting the birth of the baby, there were a few events that we were hoping we would get to attend before he came. I have to admit that there were times I wished that he would come early and we just wouldn't be able to make it. However, we have passed that final event and I am glad that he has waited to grace us with his presence. The final event was the wedding of one of Quinn's best friends. Akintunde Omitowoju is a Nigerian who grew up in between Nigerian and America and became a computer programmer. Akin moved to Japan for 5 years from 2003 to 2008 and in that time, he came to realize how much he loved Japan and will now tell anyone that he feels Japanese at heart. So how appropriate that he would meet and befriend a Japanese girl at his church in Japan who he began to date after he had moved back to Austin and started working with Quinn at Retro. Masami Nishida moved to America just a few weeks ago and their wedding was Saturday night! We were all praying that Ab...