On Childcare

I've been involved in a Women's Ministry class at Fellowship Bible for the past few months now. The class is 2 hours every week, with childcare provided, and a few different times throughout the semester of the course, they offer "extended childcare" where mothers can go out to eat and spend time with the other women for two additional hours - pretty remarkable!

We just had one of our extended days this past Wednesday and it was everything I was hoping it to be!

So now to the meat of this post: childcare.

When we transitioned churches, Lincoln went through a hard time on Sunday and Wednesday morning s(the class) when he would get left. He would scream terribly high pitched noises, tears would flow continually, and he would yell "Daddy!! Momma!!" which broke our hearts everytime. It didn't stop us from going to church or my class - but it was a dreaded moment that often distracted me twice a week.
I hated it.
I hated it for Lincoln, but I also felt bad for the workers having to deal with that kind of emotion!

But not once have I ever felt like I'm burdening those sweet workers.
They always greet with a smile and present this joy in what they volunteer to do.

Week after week, this same dreaded routine continued. And then, about 3 weeks in, Lincoln started talking about "church" at home, talking about the workers by name. He would get excited about it and run to the door asking if we could go to church. "Merle, Merle Merle!" he would exclaim with delight! Merle was his Sunday morning teacher (he and his wife were an older couple that volunteered their time).

Suddenly, Lincoln felt safe. HE loved church. HE loved the workers. And when we went Sunday of that week, he ran straight to his room, turned around and goes "Bye bye momma...bye bye daddy." like he was ready for us to get out of there!

Wednesdays were no different that week.

Did he get used to the routine? Maybe.

But what I am more convinced of are the dear, genuine joyous hearts of the people that work at Fellowship Sunday and Wednesday mornings. The two ladies that teach Lincoln Wed. genuinely love Lincoln and it is so evident in the way they get excited when he arrives and how he just hugs and kisses on them before we leave each week...and when I dropped Noah off this past week, the ladies in his room greeted him by name with big bright smiles and told me "thank you for letting us just love on him each week!!"

Thank me? Oh my! Thank YOU!

I have been on both sides of childcare. It's a hard job! I think it could be so easy - even if you are getting paid - to look at it as a merely a job (just like all of our jobs I guess) but miss the joy.

Through taking the kids to childcare at church twice a week, I have been humbled. Humbled to always be joyful in what I am doing. These ladies could still do an excellent job at caring for my children even if they weren't joyful...but oh my goodness how much that means to me to see how excited they are to be with these children! It's a great testimony and has touched my heart.

And Merle? Lincoln graduated form his class about a month ago, but Lincoln still asks about Merle DAILY. Seriously. So last Sunday I took Lincoln to visit Merle after church. Lincoln reached for him and gave him a kiss! Sweet little moments.