Making Progress

We started going to a new church about a month ago. It's a church that I had been wanting to make it to and see how we liked it. I have friends that attend there and Rich, being from this area, knows all sorts of people that go there. From everything I had heard about the worship music, the sermons and the children's programs, I really thought it would be a great fit for our family. So far, I love it and Rich seems to like it, but the kids are just not adjusting as quickly as I had hoped.

The first week we attended, we didn't know that the church had a nursery, so we kept the kids in the service with us. We didn't have the most pleasant experience. The kids, acting their ages and being impatient, did not do well in the service. Rich and I were so occupied trying to keep the kids entertained that we heard very little, if any, of the sermon. We both agreed that the next time we would try out the nursery, since we now knew it existed.

The following week, we went again and tried leaving the kids in the nursery. Morgan was great when we left her in the 18 month to 3 year nursery. She went off and played with the toys and didn't even seem to care if we were there or not. Blake went to the Birth to 18 month nursery, where he was crying when we left, but I expected that he would have a harder time. When we went to pick them up they were total opposites of how we left them. Blake had done fine and slept most of the time, Morgan had been had been crying and kept saying "no church" all the way home. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but we were going to keep trying.

The next Sunday Morgan had stayed the night at her Grandma's, so we only took Blake and we kept him in the service with us. The following week went as well as week number two and last week, feeling guilty that they had such a hard time adjusting, I never left the nursery. I stayed with them and totally missed the sermon. I was starting to wonder if going to church was going to work out at all. We knew they couldn't stay in the service with us, because Rich and I would miss the message and we'd be stressed trying to keep them entertained. Leaving them in the nursery was stressful to all of us. (I could hear Blake screaming from inside the sanctuary!) There was no way that I could stay in the nursery with them, since that would totally defeat the purpose of going in the first place. I realized that it takes time for them to adjust, and as long as the nursery workers could handle them, we were still going to keep trying.

Today was our fifth Sunday at the new church and yet another attempt at the nursery. We tried leaving them in the same nursery room, hoping they would be better together. When we left, Morgan was crying and Blake was fine . When we went to pick them up, we were told that Blake started crying because Morgan was crying and they had to separate them. All I thought was "oh no", but to my surprise they both seemed happy and there were no tears. I really don't know the best way to help them adjust, but I do think we are starting to make progress....finally! :-)