By: Hannah Thomas
Lately I haven’t had much energy to be thinking deep and writing meaningful blog posts. It’s hot, we have more kids and we have more kids with teenage attitudes that take a whole lot of my energy. Church used to be a time where we could sit and rest for a few minutes while our kids were in Sunday school but this last Sunday, Easter Sunday, I sat in church with Roxana and Auner sitting on my lap at the same time. And at the same time they were playing, wiggling and messing with Isaac who was trying to climb chairs and look through my purse.
I wished for a minute that everyone could just chill and that I could sit childless for a moment.
Then, my thoughts went to that country song by Trace Adkins that says, “You’re gonna miss this, you’re gonna want this back, you’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast.” And man, isn’t that the truth?
I had seen a ton of people on facebook and instagram “reflecting” on Easter. I was like, wow, when will I have time to think about this kind of thing? And as we sat in church, perfectly imperfect, with kids moving around, making noises, going to and from Evan and myself (and Whitney and Bryan) hugging us and playing with us, I realized that we were in the midst of celebrating the most important concept of Easter- new life! We definitely aren’t perfect but our whole goal of being here, taking care of these kids is to give them the love of Jesus and the hope for a new life. A life where their past is washed away, where they don’t need to carry the hurt or shame or loss, but that they can leave it behind and live a new life that is clean and free in love.
And I quickly finished thinking about that when Roxana tugged on my arm and said she needed to go to the bathroom.
I’m encouraged in thinking that we don’t have to be perfect. The kids acting wild during church is real life and that for a few little kids who just left an orphanage setting and have only been in a family setting for a while, they did a pretty darn good job. Who really wants to- or can- sit still for a 45 minute sermon anyway?! This season of life may not include me being able to have much alone time or many Sundays where I can focus on what is being preached but that’s okay. It’ll be gone before we know it.