{Sunday Best}

Today MUST be documented!  We all made it to church and {relatively} stayed there!  S & I have been taking turns taking the other kids to church to keep AJ at home as she learns what this family thing is about!  In her orphanage, the kids call EVERYONE "mama" so she's definitely still wrapping her mind around there only being one mama from here on out...and unfortunately church is just flat out hard for us adoptive families.  I can't put her in the nursery because then someone else is meeting her needs (trust me, even when you ask them NOT to change a diaper, they still will if it's dirty...which is nice but totally defeats the purpose of bonding and my daughter learning that her daddy and I are the ONLY ones who should be meeting her needs.}. Kids from hard places know how to work the system and unless you've received some pretty great training on this stuff {thankfully we have...twice now by requirement of adoption agencies & tons of other resources as we've sought them out over the years}  then my girls will work you over and you have no clue they are even doing it.  AJ hasn't proven to be quite as "specialized" in this area but still learned to do what it took to survive and uses it to her advantage on occasion.  So, obviously, once we set out to make this our first family back to church day just after coffee on the back porch, the Enemy went to work.  We had probably the worst half hour that we've had with AJ just before we left.  It was awful.  I was thinking I would just hold her but the hard morning was definitely proving this was a day for the Ergo/baby carrier.  We told Satan that he's got nothing on us and that this day is the Lord's and pressed on.

AJ absolutely adored the music and pointed out people as they spoke and the lights on the ceiling.  She got a little fidgety as the sermon began so I snuck out the back door and rocked her in the Ergo while I listened to the sermon {or what I could hear between people coming and going} through the doors.  And it was such a great sermon, too!  I thought as I stood there rocking her about all the sermons I missed while I was nursing my boys...typically going to Sunday school and then part of worship before they'd be hungry again and how I'd sit in a room feeding them missing sermons for the better half of the first year of their lives.  And how this was so much that feeling all over again.  So, why not have the service on a screen in a separate space for nursing moms...and me...or foster moms and anyone with special needs little ones?!?!  Scott's old company actually built a church with a sound proof glass room in the back of the sanctuary for this purpose...I definitely think there's a group of moms or even families in some hard places in their lives that would deeply benefit from having a resource like this...gracious, I know I could!

I think the hardest part of adoption is coming home and, in the midst of such a difficult transition, feeling so much like you can't be with your church family the way you wish...and the way you really need to be.  After we brought AG home over 4 years ago, we struggled tremendously to find our place again...and ended up leaving our home church for nearly 2 years to worship with another local Body who had a much larger international adoption focus and just "got" it.  We fell in love with those people and still think of that time as some of the greatest spiritual growth we have ever encountered.  We have amazing friends from that season and still listen weekly to the pastor's sermons online.  But, we knew The Lord gave us that to equip us and to teach us...and perhaps for this season He has us in now.

So...that's a lot more than I planned on writing...and really just wanted to share the photos of my little dolls in their matching smocked dresses...because nothing says "southern summer" more than smocked dresses, big bows & their monogrammed fancy pants {bloomers that keep every southern lady from showing her panties...or, um, diaper!}.  :)

Do you see what I have to deal with?!?  Their daddy is a hoot! :)

May it also be noted that today is the day that AG walked right up to our Pastor of Young Adults and smacked him on the rear!  Sorry, Doc!  At least he has two little ones himself and gets it!  Bless!!!