FABULOUS Week of God's Blessings!!

I cannot even begin to tell you how great of a week we have had!! Shane and I are just beaming with pride over our big girl Claire!! As you know from the previous post (you will need to read it first to have any idea why I am so excited she went to VBS), this week was VBS week and we were praying that Claire would not only attend, but have a great time...she has had the greatest time!! Let me catch you up since Monday...

I take her Monday night, after a pretty good night Sunday. She was excited all day and was ready to go. I took her in and she got nervous once again. I was talking to Lane before I dropped her off and Claire was so nervous, biting her little fingernails. I turned to drop her off and she told me "Mom, I have decided to not stay, I say no thanks", is that not so sweet, but sad!? I told her she had to stay, still didn't want to, but finally gave in and went and sat down with her group. I ran off once I realized she was fine, crossing my fingers she would be okay. Shane went to pick her up that night and he called me from church...EXCITED on how well she was doing!! She had a great time, made tons of friends and did not stay glued to her Papa's side all night!! She sang the cute songs and was so excited to come home and tell us all about "the Samaritan"=). When I got off the phone with Shane, I just cried, so happy that she was happy and enjoying her time in this kind of setting!! She came home and we made such a big deal about it, she could not even sleep that night!! You have to understand, this is SUCH a big deal for us and it has been such a worry for me and Shane, to get her to attend class and be away from us for a short while and KNOW that we will come back to get her...we know that our prayers have been answered and God has been with us (and her) during this whole process, we cannot thank him enough!! I am writing this and tearing up, we are so blessed!!

So tonight, she bounced right in, went to her group (to her new friends, but she cannot remember their names =)), and me and Shane were just left to watch, BEAMING!! We were talking with some of our friends and she walked over and said "See I made friends, HIGH FIVE", hilarious!! We stuck around for a minute to watch her sing some of the beginning songs before they go to class, and all I could see was her white hair bow just bouncing up and down as she was having a blast singing the songs!!

Nana and Papa said she did even better tonight and they were two of some of the proudest grandparents (Mom and Jake were thrilled, Mom was just planning she was going to have to get certified to home school =)). Tomorrow night we go back to have a hot dog dinner, play games and the final session of songs and awards...she is so excited!

I know that this seems so dramatic for such a small thing such as this to some people. 5 years ago, I would probably be totally making fun of me if I was reading this. It is so unbelievable to see how our priorities change as we become parents, the smallest things are such BIG deals. When they are babies, you worry when they don't burp after feedings, when they are a little older, you worry over every piece of food in their mouth, don't want them to choke. When they are toddlers, you worry about where they go, they can fall off and into EVERYTHING. You are proud of things such as a new diaper size, 6oz to 8oz, sleeping through the night, even though it began at 12am and lasted through 5am, using a sippy cup, singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"...and going to Bible School on their own and having a great time! All of these things are what makes us parents and are proof of God's work and the blessings he gives us!!

We are enjoying every minute of this we can because one day we are going to have much bigger and important things to worry about, and also many to be proud of! But right now, I am absolutely the proudest Mama and would not trade this drama for the world!!

Here are some pictures of the kids in their pajamas tonight. Claire is wearing her new pajamas she got for being such a big girl this week!!

Claire is our aspiring photographer in the house, she actually took this shot of me and O. I think she is pretty good.

Here is a video of sweet Claire singing her favorite song from VBS....

And here is a video of Claire and Owen singing Owen's favorite "The Frog Song"!