Nursery Duty

Yesterday, as we were settling in for bed, I was running through today's schedule with Abby and she was immediately thrilled that first on the list (after breakfast of course) was church. I've mentioned before that Abby spends the service in the nursery. It's not that we haven't tried having her sit with us, it's just that for a kid that never stops moving, it's hard for her to sit still and quiet for an hour. So she spends her time playing in the nursery. Usually she is the only one. I attribute much of this to where the nursery is located.  If you were to come to our church and ask where the nursery might be, you would need to be escorted by an usher - down to the basement, past the kitchen, through a steel door and a small hallway, up a few stairs, and then in the far back of the Sunday school room, is where you would finally end up. It's no wonder people don't want to leave their kids there - I'm sure they're wondering if they'll be able to find their way back to them. Someday, maybe, we'll move that nursery, but when the builders built the church (over 150 years ago) women were still sitting on one side of the aisle and men were on the other, I don't really think they were thinking about a "family friendly" church. But I've digressed....

This morning Abby was excited about church, but even more so to hear that Emma and Mrs. D had nursery duty, that they would be her playmates. Emma is one of my older students and Abby loves her - because she does what Abby tells asks her to. Emma and her mom are more than willing to play with Abby, even if that means playing dress-up or dancing in front of the huge mirrors that cover one whole wall of the nursery. The whole way to church all Abby could talk about was "seeing Emma," and "playing with Emma".

I was able to get her up to the sanctuary to greet some good friends, and even wish "Auntie Kir" a happy birthday, but then she pulled me toward the stairs and led the way to the nursery. Abby took off running and was so happy to be greeted by Emma and her mom. She didn't even notice that I left, she had a room full of toys to grab her attention. I can only imagine what Abby convinced them to go along with in that hour I was enjoying a wonderful service. By the time I came down and opened the door (that I'm sure Abby insisted on closing) I found them all "exercising" in front of the mirrors - with Abby in the lead. As Mrs. D said, "Abby would be a great aerobics teacher, but no one would be able to keep up." Those wonderful ladies played right along with my little peanut, and laughed as they ran down the list of all they'd done.

This evening I got a message from Emma's mom that they'd enjoyed the time they spent with Abby this morning - and that they were still recovering from all that dancing and exercising. I certainly laughed at that message, but it made me smile for another reason. It told me that, even hours later, they were thinking about Abby and how she'd brightened their day - just as they'd brightened hers.

On our way to church. Abby found her old glasses this
morning and wanted to wear them - despite the fact that they
were too small. They didn't even make it the whole way to church.

Church followed by a pizza lunch.