January 23 - Sunday Hits Hard

Two of my great frustrations with the jet lag from the China trip is that you never quite know when it's going to hit you or just how hard it will hit at any given moment.

We had such a great day Saturday.  Hadassah Peiwu's clock had totally switched so easily.  She slept so well all night.  We knew people were anxious to see our family and meet our littlest one at church.  More food was prepared for us to pick up from the church for Sunday dinner.  It just seemed to make sense to pack up the whole family and go to church on Sunday morning.

Whether it is that Hadassah Peiwu is just different than Keziah was when she came home or whether it is that we have changed our expectations a LOT, we did manage a Sunday morning at church. 

When we were leading Children's Worship time originally, our plan had been for the family to worship in "big church" during the early service, attend Sunday school, and then lead worship during the second service.  Let's just say we totally scrapped any dreams of early morning and almost four hours at church. 

We went for Sunday school.  I stayed with Hadassah Peiwu in the kindergarten class.  It was great for a while.  Some kids were making play-dough while others were playing with Legos.  One guess what we did?  LEGOS!!!  She didn't even want to switch. 

So...clean-up time and then Bible story time.  Clean-up was okay...actually pretty good.  Storytime...not so great.  But here is the part where I've learned a lot since Keziah came home! 

Do you know how boring it is to sit still and listen to a story when you can't understand a word of what the storyteller is saying?

Think about it for a minute or two...

Yep!  As I said, Keziah taught me a LOT!

BORING!!!!!

Hadassah Peiwu is different than Keziah, but I'm different too.  We sat for a while, but I could tell our time was OVER, so I tried to quietly exit.  I happen to know that the next stop for kids is the gym, before going to worship time. 

We are so blessed to have a wonderful couple who take care of everything - snacks, attendance, and fun activities.  Plus they are incredibly talented in so many other areas!  Can't wait to see what God has planned as more people are stepping in to help!

This was the perfect place for us to chill for a while.  Hadassah Peiwu got to do her favorite thing - EAT!  Then we colored for a while.  Added benefit was that she was already settled into the space before all the other kids came in.  Trust me, it's a good thing.

We did go downstairs with the kids for worship time.  Just about the time she had reached her limit, it was craft time!  Needed the diversion.  We went back downstairs, but since next was a small group activity with lots of talking, we bugged out again.

Some of the church folk had prepared another meal for us. (How many times can I say, "Thank you"?)  So Christopher took the food out to our car.  Gathered up our kids after lots of chit-chat.  We had so much food at home now that we actual ate LUNCH on a Sunday. 

Then...it hit...big and bad.  Christopher and I just collapsed.  Even poor little Hadassah Peiwu was experiencing her own jet-lag.  It didn't mean that she took a nap, but just that she was really whiny all afternoon.  We tried to get the kids to play the Wii with her, but they chose a Nerf game instead of something she might have actually enjoyed.  No way would she sit quietly and watch football with her Mama. 

I did something that is going to sound really odd.  I went into our storage stuff and found some old baby toys - the ring tower thing, and stacking cups, and vibrating bugs and plastic-rubbery jungle animals.  Why?  Sure, I know that she is seven-years-old on the calendar, but there are a lot of things she's missed out on in life.  Having a bunch of safe baby toys that she could play with is one of those things.  She had fun and stayed right where we could watch her.  Oh!  And all my other kids got down on the floor to play with the cool "new" toys too.  Go figure!

Our teenagers went to church that night.  I think mostly so they could eat pizza.  The littler ones stayed home with Mom and Dad.  Off to bed at a reasonable hour for everyone.

We had made it through two days!  A little more sleep before we faced a very busy week ahead.