A Great Family Day

Today was a wonderful Easter day.

It started out with a precious gift. A gift that I have prayed for, for almost 5 years.
I woke up this morning, and realized I had been dreaming for what seemed like forever. You know those times when you wake up and seems like your dream lasted all night long? I dreamed I was at church! LOL My dream was all about my church experience. It was like a mixture of all the real-life church experiences I've had these past few weeks. Morgan was there with me, the girls were with the other kids (which means Lily was in the nursery, which was one of the main things I'd been worrying about.....thinking she may not let go of me to stay in there), but here's the good part.........

This part is so good. When I woke up and was thinking about what I had just dreamed, it didn't even hit me for a minute just how good this dream was, until I realized who had been sitting next to me and who I was talking and joking with during my church service experience........

It was my Mom! Now, what's the big deal about that, you ask? I have been praying for almost 5 years, since she passed away, that I could just see her again in my dreams. Just talk to her again. I had dreamed a few quick dreams that she was in, and she was always unhappy or looked sad in them. So, to wake up and realize that I spent what seemed like all night long in a dream with my Mom, at church with my Mom, that was just a precious gift that the Lord gave me. It was like he was telling me not to worry, that in some way, she'd be there with me today in spirit. Words cannot express what that gift meant to me.

Well, I got up and heard the girls coming downstairs, so I went to grab my camera and take a few pictures of them with their Easter bunny stuff. I fixed them breakfast and then all of a sudden, I felt terrible! My stomach was killing me! I'm not sure if I was nervous, or really did have some kind of bug, but I was determined that I was making it to church. Morgan had agreed to go with me, because I really wanted Lily to be able to go, and she is in the clingy phase and has never really been away from me, so I wasn't sure if I'd have to bring her to the adult service with me. I guess I was nervous about her going and fussing, nervous about him going....you know how I am! Anyways, we hopped in the car and I was pleading with the Lord to help me make it there and He did.

I dropped Morgan and the girls off up front, because it was starting to rain. When I got up to the door and opened it up, the Pastor greeted me and said, "Kristin, right?" Then the music director came up and greeted me. That made me feel so welcome! They told me they were taking family portraits and would we like to have one made. I knew they were doing that, but I figured they'd be done by the time we arrived, so I was excited to see if we could get Lily to cooperate and have one made. We went in there, and took the photo. I'm not sure how it turned out because getting Lily to look at the camera is almost impossible, but they are giving every family a free 8x10 of the photo, so I'm so excited to see it and I thought that was an awesome thing! We have never had a family portrait made!!

After the photo, we went to drop the kids off. Like I've said before, this church is brand new and they meet at a local recreation center. The big kids have church in the gym and the toddlers and babies are set up outside the gym. They just have an area gated off to contain them. We dropped Lily off and at first she was acting like she wasn't going to stay, but we just kind of walked away. She stood by herself and wouldn't talk to anyone, but by the end, she had ended up coloring and not being so shy. I'm so glad she cooperated! I was really worried about that. She really seemed to have a good time too.

Then we went and sat down for the service. There were maybe 30-40 people there today. I was excited to get to hear the Pastor speak since he was gone last time. The music again was great. We sang some traditional songs I remember from when I was in church as a kid, like "Nothing but the blood of Jesus" (not sure if that's the name of it) and we sang "Mighty to Save." I have to say that the Pastor is AWESOME!! Today was the first of his afterlife series. We, of course, talked about how Jesus rising from the dead forever changed the course of history. I loved how he spoke though. He preached straight from the Bible, but he has a gift of being able to make it relatable, like how we would have reacted if we had went to Jesus' tomb and seen that his body was gone. I just absolutely loved it. I am so excited to go back next week.

After the service, they even gave us a free book from Lee Strobel called "The Case for Easter." I'll let you know how it is. I'm excited to read it.

They were having an Easter egg hunt for the kids after the service. Since it was raining, they had it in the gym. The girls had lots of fun.

Here's Lily with the other little ones, running for eggs.

Here's the big kids after "On your mark, get set, go!" That's the Pastor in the white shirt. His wife was really nice too. She stays with the kids during the service, and she came up to me and introduced herself.

I was so glad that Morgan went with me today. That was our first time going to church together, ever! He said he liked it, but felt kind of awkward during the singing parts. I guess he felt weird standing there while everyone was singing. Plus, it's not like this church is huge and you can kind of just blend in. It's a very small group right now. I think that's just normal to feel weird when you aren't used to being in that kind of environment. I just want to say how much I love my husband, because he knew this was important to me, and never once did he question going. I will not ever force him to go with me, and I don't know if he'll want to go next week, but I have complete faith that one day he will want to go.

When we got home, I tried to take some photos of the girls. They were being so silly! I couldn't get one of them all looking at the camera at the same time!

We went to Grandma's house (Morgan's Mom) after church. The girls had fun picking flowers and hunting for eggs. The sun actually came out and it was beautiful (hot even), so they were able to hunt eggs outside after all.

Here's a rare picture of us all together. Does anyone else hate seeing themselves in photos as much as I do? Oh well, I have made it a point to try and get more photos of myself so the girls will have them when I'm no longer here.

Here's Madison and Kaylee with the flowers they picked.

Overall, it was just a great family day. I feel like I am where I'm supposed to be as far as church is concerned. The girls love this church too. I like that it is just starting out and I can grow as it grows. I am just so excited to see where the Lord leads me!!!!!!!

Thanks for following along on my journey......like my friend Veronica says, I don't have a short version to anything! LOL