Raise your hand, if you hand an incredible weekend filled with the love of your dear friends & family. Yep, that is me, raising both my hands with a big ole smile plastered on my face.
After a long absence from Mom's Night Out, a small group re-gathered rather last minute. From garlic fries to thought-provoking conversations, it was fabulous from the moment Aimee jumped into my car. In the past year or so, honesty and transparency within my friendships has taken a center stage. Valuing the real life stuff of our days is what has come forward. But, not stopping with the concerns...actually being will to process in hopes of growing, changing and improving, as hard as it is to put words to...as vulnerable as that makes us. Yeah, that is what we've been doing. It's happened in this fluid, organic way in the midst of raw hurts. And, it's brought us each into deeper relationships as well as revealing our authentic selves. You know what Marsden Wagner says about our authentic selves! Pretty fabulous when we can stay close to them. This night, I struggled to make sense of some things that I have noticed with a precious child. I felt so supported in hearing my fellow mamacitas talking about something they know more about than me. On first impact, I had to begin to unpack my backpack in front of them. It was incredible to be held in such a supportive space as I unloaded my uncertainties.
At Saturday's bonfire, the best of the evening (besides the obviousness of VEGAN BISCUITS and homemade jam) was 25 kids enjoying each others' company without a single disagreement that I noticed. At one point, probably half of them were working together to get a ball out of a tree with no adult supervision. They just rolled, the whole evening. It was awesome. Getting to chat with dearest friends & family and catch up was so fabulous. The bear found her place in Uncle Anthony's lap at various intervals. It's so wonderful to watch her get her cup filled when it's been low on Uncle Atny time. She knew what she needed and sought it out. I so appreciate the ease of that for her. Seeing her snuggled between him and his girlfriend made my heart so happy. Such a gift. E was surrounded with her best friends and stuffed puppies with real collars and leashes (for her birthday wish in Bali). Anne is now convinced to shop in the pet section for kid's gifts! She asked a couple of times where another friend was but I could tell she, too was super content with the evening (and seeing that little friend at church made it better). The very saddest part was discovering my camera battery was dead! It hasn't been keeping a charge since the beach. Some days are meant to be held in our minds' eye.
Sunday was so hard to say "see you later" to our amazing church family. We have the most wonderful church to attend. As much as I appreciate our church in Bali and am soooooo looking forward to worshiping with them, again, it's bittersweet. The dynamic will change in Bali b/c our whole family will attend and it's a very small English service. We're hoping to attend the Indo service more often this time. We attended two different churches while out of town this summer, one was a sister church and one was a totally different denomination. It was neat to visit our sister church; it felt like home away from home. But, it was revealing to me just how great of a fit our church is when we attended the other one. E sits through the service with me each Sunday and even she commented, "People don't yell like that in our church." Yeah, even when the theology may go over one's head, the spirit rings clear. We cherish our place here and will be praying for the stretching attending a different place will be for us. Ultimately, we are grateful to even have a place in Bali and we rejoice that the Indonesian people are brave enough to risk what they risk to drive up that steep hill on Sundays. For my girls, we'll see if visiting the dogs on the church steps holds more intrigue, yet again than sitting in the actual service. Thank God that the Balinese people are the epitome of 'kid friendly".
You've heard me mention it before, about Jessica and that poem back in college. Well, I am doing it, again. Drinking from the saucer because my cup has overflowed. Actually, I think my whole family is.
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