Emma

Between Abby's tummy issues and Jason's hand incident, it had been a few weeks since Abby had been to church. I got word this week that a couple of Abby’s favorites (Mrs. D and Emma) would be in the nursery, and that they were so excited to spend some time with her.

We arrived at church and Abby was thrilled to see many of her buddies. The school kids were singing during the service, so many of them were milling around waiting for the service to start. She was so excited to see them all, that she wanted to stay with them, but thanks to Carter, Abby was off to the nursery.

I can only imagine the fun that Emma, Mrs. D, and Abby were up to during the service. (I saw later that Emma had even come prepared - she’d brought her gym shoes incase Abby had her doing aerobics like last time.) Abby even got the bonus of visiting with an old friend when Ms. Danielle (her buddy from child care a few years ago) brought her daughter down to the nursery. I know she had a great time.

Soon enough it was time for Communion. I will typically go get her at this point so she can come to the altar with me. I went down to get her, but she wanted to stay with Emma. Luckily they were heading up to Communion as well, so Abby held tight onto Emma and Mrs. D’s hands and we all were off.

While we waited in the back of church Abby continued to charm Emma. Abby hugged, cuddled, and would periodically lean back to examine Emma’s face. I’ve mentioned before that Emma is a former student of mine. She is a lovely young lady who has just begun her freshmen year of high school. Now Emma looks much like any other high school freshmen, but she does stand out because of her auburn hair. Although I’ve never asked, between her hair and the cute freckles that cover her face, I would guess that Emma has some Irish heritage. She also has a wonderful sense of humor, which I was grateful for this morning when Abby leaned back and pointed to Emma’s face and mentioned the “polka-dots” there. 

Unfortunately this was not Abby’s most embarrassing church moment of the morning. 

Abby convinced us all that she would be good, if only she could go to Communion with Emma. I made sure that Mrs. D would be in front of Abby and Emma, and I would be behind them and we set off to get into line. Unfortunately, we had to wait a bit at the front of the church. Abby had been good going down, so we all had a false sense of security. Eventually she got a good look around at things and she apparently spied the music stand and microphone, because suddenly I heard her say, “I try the microphone!” and watched her shoot forward. She was too quick and I wasn’t able to grab her until we had run across the front of the church and she stopped by the piano. That’s when I decided that Abby needed to go back out of the church, so I scooped her up and headed up the side aisle. Once Abby realized what was happening she started calling for Emma. Yes, as the whole church looked on I was carting my squirming kid past them while she yelled for her friend Emma.

By the time I got her to the back of the church and through the glass doors, she was in tears. What a sight she was as she sat at the door, looking into the sanctuary and crying for Emma.

With the help of some others she was soon distracted and the tears dried up, but it still took that darling Emma to get Abby to the car. She so kindly walked us out to the parking lot and buckled Abby in, while Abby continued trying to convince Emma that she should go to Emma’s house.

Throughout the day Abby would talk about getting to play with Emma, and how she wanted to see her next week, and I assured her that she would indeed get to see Emma at church, but next week I think I will let them visit once the service is over. 

This wasn't from today, but it proves my point:
it's a good thing she is so cute!