Saturday, October 17, 2009

I'm gonna be such a great mom some day! haha :)








Whew! I made it through the busiest weekend of my entire life. I can honestly say there were moments when I was questioning my ability to keep going. So much has happened this past week or so that I'm not sure where to begin. I have learned a lot about myself and the kids and I'm really starting to feel like a mom rather than a chaperone. In my last blog I wrote about the jam packed weekend we had ahead of us. That weekend was AMAZING - looking back on it now, I find it hard to believe that everyone stayed alert, happy, excited, energetic, and positive for the majority of the weekend. God truly knows what He is doing and I've learned to not question His plans. 


This past Saturday the kids had an amazing opportunity to perform at a Third Day concert. It was soooooo awesome to see the kids doing such a huge event. They were amazing (yes, I'm biased, but I think you would agree if you heard them)! I always feel like a proud parent when the kids are leading worship - I laugh at myself because I often have tears come to my eyes when I watch them up on stage. One thing I found very interesting was the fact that the kids didn't even make a big deal out of being able to perform with Third Day. They treated Mac Powell (the lead singer for Third Day) just like any other person. Here I am with the other interns pinching myself to make sure that I'm actually in the same room with Mac Powell standing 2 inches away and the kids could care less who the guy is. All they know is he's someone who they are going to sing with. It's really cool because the kids "perform" the same no matter whether there are 3 people watching or 30,000. I love that about them!


After the Third Day concert we traveled to Anderson, SC. We arrived a little after 1:00 am and had to be up at 5:00 the next morning - sleep has become a precious and rare thing to be cherished this past week. The kids did 2 songs per service at Newspring (they had 4 services) and then we headed north. We spent  almost one full day on the bus as we made our way to Maryland where spent 2 days. One of these days was spent touring Washington D.C. We had a great time touring the White House, The Air & Space Museum, The Natural History Museum, and eating lunch on the Mall outside of the Capital. My favorite experience of the day however, was the planetarium at the space museum - I felt like a kid again as I ooed and ahhed at the stars and the planets. Some of the kids kept asking if we were moving and told me that they needed their dramamine. I had to laugh. 


After Maryland, we spent some time in New Jersey where we had a concert on Wednesday night. It has really started to get cold (I mean like 30s and 40s all day). Everyone says it's unseasonably cold up here, but I wouldn't know any different. It was very rainy in New Jersey and really cold - but none the less, we had a great time and really good time of worship with Bethel Baptist. On a side note, just to make you laugh, many of you know I'm a pretty big clutz. I fall a lot! Well during the lovely weather in New Jersey I added another fall the ever growing list that I have of "falling stories." The church we were staying at had a family life center on one side of the street and the sanctuary and the office building were on the other side. We needed internet while we were there and there was no wireless so we had to go across the street. No big deal (if you aren't me). Since it was raining, freezing, and the road to cross was 5 lanes with a fair amount of traffic I was running to make my time outside as short as possible. Not a good idea. I'm running (keep in mind I have like 3 layers of clothes on, a huge backpack, with laptop inside, no hood, and the ground is super wet and slippery), I get about 20 yards from the door and I completely miss the fact that there is a curb to step over. I trip, do not catch myself, the backpack comes over my head forcing me to completely lay out in a puddle. As I struggle to get up and rebalance myself I just had to laugh. Only I could manage to myself in such an entanglement. If only had taking my time I would have ended up without pain in my knee and elbo, aLOT drier, and my ego still intact. Haha, God does have His way of humbling us - I must say!


Anyway, I'm now in Pennsylvania having a blast. We went bowling today and I'm proud to say I broke 100 (ok, yes there were bumpers) but still. Let me tell you though, I was pretty impressed with the kids' ability to knock down some pins! I also got to go to Target today - I was thrilled. Of course my kids were waiting with our host in the car so I didn't go in to browse, but it was a small adventure that was out of the ordinary for me :) It really is the small things that mean the most. 


I have been struggling a lot this past week with wisdom and patience. I have reached the point where I is essential that I find a healthy balance between being a friend and a caregiver. I have really had a hard time knowing what to say and when. I'm really trying to determine what I should choose to bring attention to and what I should simply ignore. This issue is the thought behind my title for this post. I am learning more about being a parent then I ever could have in all my 4 years of Child and Family Development Classes at GSU (no offense to my professors). It's hard to explain, but I'm really having to do some self assessment. God's really working in my heart and I've been discovering just how incapable I am of "chaperoning" these kids. Now is definitely not the time to be the control freak I'm so prone to turn into. I told you that I've been struggling with wisdom and patience, well one of the interns prayed that I would find each of these things and that God would provide. (Yes, I know when you pray for patience God only gives you more situations in which your patience are tested, I was fully aware of this when I asked). This morning I was doing a devotion and what verse happened to be the key verse? James 1: 2-8, which says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." Now you tell me that God wasn't all over that!! Man, He's incredible. I have no words to describe how much peace I felt after stumbling upon this verse this morning - it's awesome to see God prove His holiness and mightiness. 


I know this has been a REALLY lengthy post, I'm sorry if your eyes are killing you by now. But kudos to you if you made it this far. I miss you all so much and love the texts, emails, comments, and facebook replies each of you send to me. They really uplift me and make me smile. I'll leave you with the word of the day which is a recent addition to my own Swahili vocabulary - twinde. It means quickly or hurry (appropriate, huh?)


Naukupenda everyone!


Allison :)