Yearn for Surrender: Another visit from the Grands!

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Another visit from the Grands!

We have been having lots of company this summer! It is such a blessing to have grandparents! Both sets of grandparents live 7ish hours away. We are so thankful for the many times a year they each come. Brandon's parents came here at the end of May for Memorial Weekend so it was incredible that they came back just a few weeks later.

Brandon's parents came with a purpose. I help head up an adoption event at our church each year. It is an event for entire families to connect about adoption. Some families are home with kids and some are in the process or just considering adoption. It is a lot of work for me and a huge blessing to have extra adults while I prepare. I joke that it feels like I have a job for a few days a year right around the event. It also reminds me of how hard it would be to have a job with the kiddos God has given me. My kids don't exactly love not having mommy around.

On top of helping occupy the kids so I could work, Tom and Judy were also station leaders during the kids part of the event. Because this is a family event, we have to have something for the kids to do once the potluck is done. In previous years we have done very little which creates hours of chaos for the child care workers. This year we sort of structured it like a one night camp, and it worked beautifully. The kids and the leaders had great fun and we are already dreaming up plans for next year's stations! Tom and Judy (and others too) ROCKED!

Tom and Judy did lots of book reading. My kids had just checked out over 20 books from the library and every one was read many times! T was really into tea parties so Grandpa Tom was a popular tea party guest.

Our new trend of not telling the kids about visitors is brilliant! They sleep before visits and they have such joyful expressions when they spot their grandparents! Another successful surprise happened wit h this visit!

While I was working on Saturday, the guys and the kids went biking and found themselves at a festival. They enjoyed music and food and of course a chance to sit in a fire truck!

On Monday morning Brandon and I both got to do special things. Brandon went on a LONG ride (61miles). Wow, I can't even imagine how my legs would feel after that! I went on a short drive to pick up 120 pounds of chicken breasts. I am serious! Charissa and I buy them in bulk at a great price and then put them in freezer bags and are stocked for months. It is a gift for us to do something where our hands are very contaminated because it means we get to do it totally alone. We can't help out our kids so someone else gets to. We have about two hours of adult talk time. A rare gift of moms with many littles!

The night the arrived I was able to sneak over to church for Charissa's baby shower while Brandon and Tom and Judy took the kids out to eat, to a park and back home for books. It was so much fun celebrate my amazing friend Charissa and to just be around other women for a couple of hours! We were matching for the event and a friend got a picture of us!