We attend church on Sundays. There is a "cry room" that allows parents to sit with their infants and not worry if they make noises during the service because the room sits at the back of the sanctuary and is enclosed in glass. When Owen was born we sat in that room for a year before I felt comfortable leaving him in the nursery. He has been involved in the kids program ever since and enjoys attending Sunday school. Things have been different with Callie. I never felt comfortable leaving her. For the first year we kept her in the cry room with us. At that point she still was not sitting up independently and I just was not in a place where I felt comfortable explaining her delays to the nursery staff. Then she got her NG tube and I certainly did not want to hand her over to anyone and risk it getting pulled. Then she was a toddler, but not toddling. One Sunday I took her to the nursery to see if I felt comfortable leaving her, but she was so much bigger than all of the babies, and it was kind of depressing how the other much younger babies would crawl up to her as she sat there immobile. She looked big and out of place there. But when I tried out the toddler room it was just as depressing because all of the kids were walking around and talking. Quite a bit of time had passed since these trials and for some reason yesterday I decided to give Sunday school another try. She is pretty steady on her feet now, so after observing the toddler room I decided to try dropping her off there for the service. I asked her if she wanted to play and she looked at me with her expressive brown eyes and nodded her head "yes". I quickly explained to the nice lady volunteering in the room that she is delayed and therefore cannot talk, and also FYI she has a feeding tube in case anyone noticed a bump on her tummy (her button) while holding her. Then I took a deep breath and handed her over. Like a big, brave girl Callie walked right into the room and headed for the toys. I slipped away and my eyes welled with tears as I headed to the service to meet Allen. It was a hard leaving our little girl!
Each child is assigned a number and if there are any issues the number will appear on a screen in church so that you know to go check on your child. Callie's number popped up about halfway through the service and my heart sank. All of a sudden I doubted my decision to leave her and rushed to the toddler room. The lady advised she was absolutely fine and doing great, but it was snack time and they were wondering if she could have a graham cracker since I mentioned a feeding tube. Duh... I didn't even think of snack time. I explained if they broke the cracker into smaller pieces and made sure she did not put too much in at a time it was fine. Then I camped outside the room for a little bit to observe her and make sure everything went okay. Again tears came to my eyes. I was overwhelmed with emotion as I watched our special little girl completely blend in with the typical kids. She sat there with the others and happily fed herself a snack and then went back to playing. Two summers ago after her diagnosis I was afraid to hope for something like this and now I was witnessing it. Seeing Callie yesterday in that classroom is proof enough for me that God answers prayers. I am so humbled and grateful for how our baby girl has been blessed. To all of you who faithfully pray for Callie, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
