Hosanna in the Highest - Passport Diaries

“We didn’t come last week,” a lady with lots of kids told me at church one Sunday before I had kids. “My husband was gone and sometimes it’s just easier, you know?”

I nodded, thinking, “Well yeah, it’s always easier to NOT.”

Fast forward some years and kids and it turns out she was understating that. It’s not just easier to not go without Chris; it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to go without Chris!

Isaac has outgrown the nursery and for whatever reason freaks out at Training in the Pews (TIPs). He went once and cried the entire time. I walked him back the next week and he just lost it, clinging to me with real tears and begging to sit in church with Mom and Dad. O….k….. And he does pretty well. He stands, he sings, he sits, he listens…he wiggles, he wants to sit in my lap, he wants a snack, he wants to poke Dad. Eloise could go to the nursery, but she usually sleeps in my arms during the service.

So I haven’t taken both kids to church alone when Chris has watch or is underway. We hardly seem to go to church anyway with all the barf and snot in our house. I had no plan to go to church today (Chris has watch, kids have a little snot).

Then I realized it’s Palm Sunday. And that I am lame. So I put on my big girl pants (and by that I mean my new $7 skirt), got the kids dressed, changed Eloise into a different cute dress after she pooped on the first one, and loaded up into the car!

We got to church on time! We sat down without a fuss! I told Isaac I would not make it cozy to stay with me, so no snacks, juice, etc. unless he went to TIPs.

Eloise took a nap! Isaac was great! WE DID IT!

The Palm Sunday service ended and Isaac scampered off to chase his friend Nathan around like always. Then Nathan and his family left, and Isaac was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t in any of his usual sanctuary spots. The church was emptying fast and none of the little kid heads I could see around the room were my son’s. Minutes ticked by as I struggled to search for him while carrying his jacket, Eloise, her blanket. The sound guy checked the playground. Other moms came to the search party. Finally the sound guy found Isaac hiding in some pews.

“Isaac! Where were you? You really scared me!! What were you doing?!”

“I sorry, Mommy. I was playing with the cups.”

Empty communion cups—gross! “Isaac you’re not allowed to play with those. You really scared me. I didn’t know where you were.”

“I sorry, Mommy.”

At this point I was kneeling down zipping his jacket and smelled something…HE SMELLED LIKE WINE. Sure enough, there was purple around his mouth.

“Were you just playing with the cups or were you drinking out of them?!”

“I drinking them.”

“…Was the juice yummy?”

“No.”

“That’s because it was WINE. Oh my word, Isaac, you were drinking other people’s communion wine!”

And THAT is why I don’t take two kids to church alone! You tell me: was this a win or a loss?