VBS

Stephen attended his first official Vacation Bible School at our church this week. I was so conflicted on whether or not I should take him. I am so very, very glad that we took him.

In order to attend VBS at our church, you need to be 4 years old. Stephen was 4 years old. However, they were using the date July 1st as THE date, not the start of VBS. This caused me some "should I" or "should I not" feelings.

Stephen has not done anything at our church well ever since birth. I was paged out of church most everytime I put him in the nursery because he cried so much. My mommy friends encouraged me by saying he would eventually warm up...but he never really did. Our church has an awesome nursery staff who worked with him/us really hard. They are so awesome that I would want it to work for them because they were trying to hard.

I also attend Moms meetings at church. Again, Stephen would go to the childcare during these times. Again, I got paged out quite often, or picked up a red faced child. And, wouldn't you know, just as soon as he got used to it, they had a fire drill one day & that scared him...for good.

So, Grandma Cupitt starts teaching the Sunday school class that he will attend. And he finally lets go of us when we take him to Sunday school while we attend church. Yay. Progress. But, he never really brought church home. And I promise you, my MIL is a great teacher for the age group.

So, I really didn't think Stephen would push through VBS at our church. I really didn't. I thought about telling the staff he wouldn't be coming so they could give his spot to someone else (they had to turn people away from VBS this year). But, Stephen told me the day before that he wanted to go.

Let me tell you-there has been a huge turn around in my little boy. Stephen LOVED VBS. He talked about it when he came home. He spent time singing the songs that they were singing. He started wanting to pray using non-form prayers!!!! He told us that Brutus changed because of God's love. HE GOT IT. I just want to cry thinking about it.

Stephen has done really well at his school, which is in another church. He has also done well in their summer activities, but, I am so thrilled that Stephen has finally had a connection with OUR church. Finally something he is excited about in his own age-appropriate way...not just following Mom and Dad.

I want to thank everyone I can for volunteering to make this work. Stephanie K, Catherine R., Rhonda C., Candi A., Stef E, Molly P, Tina B., Joyce A., Alicia E., Pastor Finke, Mary Voigt, DeAnna, DeAnna, .... I am sorry if I am leaving anyone out that I talked to when there-I will update this post! You are so important to my life this week!
I know the time you took out of your lives to make this work for the children. I chose not to volunteer this year because of my baby's needs, it's not my season & I am just so thankful to those of you that made it your season. THANK-YOU. THANK-YOU. I will do my turn in years to come.