Finding a Church Home

We feel very blessed to be part of a church family that helps us to grow spiritually and who loves our family. Yesterday was the first Sunday in a few weeks that I was able to be at church, and I realized just how much I missed it. When I woke up this morning, it was on my heart that I needed to share with everyone (well, everyone who reads this) just how lucky we are to have such a great church home and why we love it so much. One day, before we were married, Tommy was in the grocery store on a Sunday just after noon. He rounded the corner and literally ran into a couple he knew from 1st Baptist in Lafayette. It was obvious to them by the way Tommy was dressed, that he wasn't at church that day. So they asked if he had found a place to go. They told him about this great church nearby that they were attending and told him to try it out. So two weeks after we were married, we attended our first Sunday at Tallowood Baptist Church. We fell in love immediately. We became regular members of a Sunday School class with other young married couples. We thoroughly enjoyed the pastor and the messages he brought to us each week. We also made good friends through the church, friends who are today some of our best friends. When John was born, most of our time was spent at the hospital with him. For 3 months, we spent every Sunday at Texas Children's Hospital, just being with our son. We had many visitors from our church over those 3 months. We had ministers come to visit us, we had friends from Sunday School come to visit and even once we had a total stranger come to visit. She and her husband had visited our Sunday School department the previous Sunday and she heard about our family. She happened to be a doctor at the hospital so she decided to come down and introduce herself to me and let me know that if there was anything I needed or something medical that I didn't understand, I could call her anytime and she would help me. All that from a total stranger. How awesome is that? We even got phone calls from people in the church that we didn't know, who saw in our Sunday bulletin that John had been born. Our church prints each Sunday when a new baby is born, who the parents are and how much the baby weighed. When they saw his weight, they figured he must have been premature, so they looked us up and called to tell us they had clothes that might fit him or just to offer us advice because they too were parents of a premature baby. All of these things made us feel very loved and gave us the support we desperately needed during those difficult times. When our church decided to start a new church in the Katy area, we toyed with the idea of going there because it was much closer to us. But we thought about how much we love our pastor and all of our friends and we thought about all of the support we got during those months and years after John was born, and we decided we just couldn't leave. After John came home from the hospital, we weren't sure what to do about church. We wanted to go, but because of his medical issues, we just weren't prepared to leave him in regular child care. We talked to the directors of our Sunday School department and they told us we could bring him with us to Sunday School. So that is what we did, for 3 years. Each Sunday, we would go to Sunday School and take John with us. We liked to say that he was our class mascot. But we would leave after Sunday School without going to the service. We felt he would be too much of a distraction during the church service. After 3 years of this, we finally met with the preschool minister to talk about finding John his own Sunday School class. We were aware that Tallowood had a department for kids with special needs, but the minimum age to be in that class was 6 years old. We finally found a class that we thought John would do well in. It was a class of 18-24 month old kids and the teachers of that class was a married couple who had experience with special needs. Once John started that class, we were finally able to go back to "Big Church". He got to spend 2 hours in there each Sunday and he seemed to really enjoy it. When promotion time came around the next year, it was decided that it would be best for him to stay in that class another year. So he did. We loved the Olivier's and the rest of the people who worked with him in there. But by the time he was 5, we all decided he was just too big to be with that same age group of kids. With nowhere else for him to go, the children's minister decided to let him into the Tallowood Treasures class a little early. We were so thankful that our church worked with us at finding a suitable place for John to spend his Sunday mornings, so that we could worship together. John has been part of the Tallowood Treasures for 2 years now. Two of the main teachers are certified life skills teachers. They know how to use different methods to teach our kids about God's love. There are also several volunteers who help the teachers and who love our kids deeply. We've always felt comfortable with John being there without us. Over the years, his medical issues became a little less urgent and since we were in the same building he was in, we knew that if there was a problem, we could be there in a hurry. But this year the church has started to kind of revamp the department just a little. All the teachers and volunteers are the same, but they decided to make one of the teachers the director of the department. And she has been working really hard, meeting with parents and researching other churches with special needs programs to find the best way to meet all of our needs and make it an even better place for our kids to spend their Sunday mornings. For the past two years, John has been able to attend Vacation Bible School as part of the Treasures class. This year, the church decided to go through a nursing agency and have a registered nurse spend the week with them in Vacation Bible School. It apparently went so well, that they decided to hire her on a regular basis. So now, each Sunday when our son goes to his class, not only does he have wonderful teachers and volunteers to help meet his spiritual needs, but he also has a registered nurse present to help meet his medical and physical needs. I am so excited that they have decided to do this. Maybe this will get more parents back to church who have been afraid to leave their child without the care of a medical professional. If you or someone you know has a special needs child and are looking for a wonderful church home in the Houston area, look us up. For more information, you can go to the church's website at www.tallowood.org or you can contact me. We would love to see you on Sundays.

Summer Fun

Last weekend, Tommy and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. If you recall, last year we went away for the weekend for the first time since John was born. It was a really big ordeal for us to leave overnight without him, but we had so much fun. So we decided to do it again this year. On Friday, we left around 1:00 and set out for San Antonio.

 We spent the next two nights at the JW Marriott Hill Country resort. We had lots of good food to eat and of course plenty of time to enjoy the pool and lazy river. Friday night, after a couple of hours in the pool, we enjoyed a casual dinner at the sports bar at the resort and because we were both so tired, went to bed early. After sleeping late on Saturday (oh how I miss doing that) we had a late breakfast and then spent a good bit of the afternoon floating the lazy river and hanging out in the adults only pool. We also did a few trips down the water slide, where Tommy thought it would be fun to flip my tube over, sending me underwater. Fun for him, not so much for me. We had planned on a later dinner, so after taking a late afternoon nap, we went to the golf clubhouse, where they have a very nice steakhouse. Again, we were both pretty tired, so we called it an early night. When I asked Tommy what his favorite part of the weekend was, he said sleeping late. I have to say that I agree. It really was nice to be away together with no responsibility and no need to need to keep an eye on the clock. I think we may try to make this an anniversary tradition.

11 Years of marriage

Of course today is July 4th. Such a fun holiday for families. One of my favorite July 4th holidays was the year we went to see my brother in Arkansas and the family rented a boat and spent the day out on the lake. It was such a fun and relaxing day and I wish we were able to spend more holidays like that. That's just one more reason I hope JT gets his trach out very soon. We aren't able to do any kind of swimming with him because of the trach, and without the pool to keep us cool, it's too hot to spend any amount of time outside. So today we went to lunch at the brand new Rudy's Barbecue here in Katy. Today was their first day open, and while I'm generally a little hesitant about trying a brand new place until they get the kinks worked out, I thought it was pretty good. And we got there at a good time, because by the time we left, the line was out the door. It was a very popular idea today. Now I'm sitting in my recliner, while JT naps and Tommy snores on the sofa. It is thundering outside, so maybe we'll get a little rain.

Because of the holiday, this week was a dead week for John's therapies. But next week, we'll be back at it. His horse therapy is really going well. He is loving the time he spends riding, and I have noticed it making a difference. During his first session, he didn't last the entire 45 minutes, and he spent a good majority of the time lying down on the horse. But last week, he rode the full time and spent most of the time sitting up. They are really working to get him sitting up straight. I've seen him doing that more at home too. He has 3 more sessions for the summer and then they take a break until September. Pray that a spot will open up for him and he'll be able to continue riding in the fall. I feel like more time spent on the horse for him could really make a difference. If he could strengthen his core and learn some trunk control, it could really go a long ways toward him being able to walk.

Other than therapy, our weeks have been pretty easy going. I almost have to really think to come up with ideas for us to get out of the house. Again, the heat is too bad to do much outside, and indoor activities are kind of limited. So I take him with me to the store when I can and yesterday, we just went for a walk around the mall. It was good exercise for me and he got a frozen yogurt treat at the end. We've also gone to see a couple of movies. We enjoy going to Studio Movie Grill because each week they show a different older kids movie and it's just $1 for kids and $2 for adults to get in. That's probably the best indoor activity I can come up with. In a couple of weeks, our niece, Jennifer, will be coming to stay with us so that will liven up the place a little. While he'll still have therapy and a few doctor's appointments, we'll still find some fun things to do while she's here. And he'll have a good time with her, even if we stay at home.

Have a Happy July 4th! Enjoy the time with your families!