What a week! I have lost count of all the things that have literally blessed my socks off this week. Tuesday, I got a sweet postcard from Angela, the lady who works in the children's ministry at Crossridge Church. (Jaxon's first Sunday did not go well, but the past two Sunday's have been great!) Wednesday, I got to have a fantastic dinner at the Olive Garden (my favorite) with a few of my BFF's, Marissa, Courtney, and Traci. Thursday, we got a letter from Pastor Marc thanking us for coming to church and telling us how good it was to see us.(I understand that these are small tokens of appreciation that they share with us, but I still thought it was nice none-the-less.) Then came Friday. Aside from it being a payday Friday, it was a great day. All week long I had contemplated about what our plans were going to be as far as our family was concerned. I had actually RSVP'd to a "meetup" family event at Chuck E Cheese's in Grapevine, but after my dinner with the girls on Wed. night I thought it might be fun to maybe have them over and just hang out at the house. So on Thursday morning I had just decided that I would cancel the Chuck E Cheese thing and just have the girls over. Well, Thursday at 5pm my cell phone rang. What is really strange is that whenever there is a number that I don't recognize I ALWAYS hit "ignore," and I figure if it is important enough they will leave a message. This time I didn't do that. I answered my phone and it was Kim Farnell, Pastor Marc's wife. I stepped out into the lobby at my office and chatted with her for a bit. We talked about my family, and she was saying how good it was to see us the previous week at church. Mainly, she called to invite me to the Women's Ministry Kick Off dinner that was to be held Friday night @ 7pm. Even though in the back of my mind I knew that I had already made plans I told her that I would try to be there. She said that she totally understood if I could not make it, but wanted to extend the offer. We hung up and I packed up my stuff and was walking out to my truck and I called my husband. (Prior to Kim's call another big event occurred, but I won't be able to discuss that until later on this week.) Needless to say, I was giddy, and full of excitement and I needed to share it with him right away. I told him about my phone call with Kim, and about how she had invited me to the Women's dinner and I told him that I really wanted to go, but childcare wasn't going to be provided. I wanted to make sure he would be able to be home in time to watch Jaxon so I could go. Of course, he had no issues with that and told me I should definitely go.
Friday could not have been over fast enough! We were busy due to the end of the month, and Friday late afternoon I was informed that I would have to work Saturday morning. (Please don't misunderstand my complaining for ungratefulness. I am very thankful for my job.) Anyway, knowing I had to work Saturday put a damper on my mood for the rest of the afternoon. Once 5 o'clock hit I hurried to go pick up Jaxon, hurried to the bank, and got home by 6pm. I played with Jaxon for a few minutes, freshened up and hurried out the door. (It takes me roughly 20 minutes to get to the church from my house since the new toll bridge has recently opened up). I didn't get nervous until I pulled up to the church. Typically, I don't have a problem going to functions like this by myself, but for whatever reason I was a little bit anxious. I walked in and paid my money (for the dinner, which was Italian, my favorite!) and I was given a name tag with my name and table # on it. I stuck my name tag on, and walked down the hall, and (thankfully) ran into Kim. She gave me a hug and told me she was glad I made it, and walked me into the room where the dinner was going to be held. She noticed that I had the #3 on my name tag and she began searching for the lady who she had made hostess to my chosen table. (Each assigned table had an assigned hostess.) Kim spotted a lady and waved her over to us and introduced me to her. Her name was Tami and she was super sweet! I knew right away that I would like her. She was very bubbley and had a very friendly smile. We chatted for a minute, and she told me she was a new Christian and that her and her husband loved it at Crossridge. She was the mother to two older boys, and she also told me that she was an avid Harley rider! I told her that my husband and I lived in Corinth, and she told me that they frequented the Harley store there, lol. After I got something to drink I sat down at our table and was only by myself for just a second when more people started to join us. Once everyone got settled Tami got out a sheet of paper that had a list of questions on it. Kim had given each table these questions to help sort of break the ice and help the ladies get to know each other. (I thought this was a great idea!) Kim got up on stage and gave a short introduction about the evenings plans and then asked a new member, Vanessa, to come bless the food. Vanessa gave a short testimony of how her and her family came to Crossridge, which I thought was so good, and then she blessed the food. One by one the different tables got up to go and get their food. While our table was waiting our turn Tami started to ask the questions. We started with Janet who was sitting to my right. She was an older lady, married for 34 years, and her husband serves on the parking team. Then of course there was me, and to my left was another older lady named Cecelia who works for Bank Of America and is a very proud Grandmother. Next to her was....gosh....I really want to say her name was Wendy....this was the only name that I could not remember. Anyway, she was a loving mother of 4, and also a newcomer to the church. Next to her was Nicki. Nicki was the funny one at our table, or atleast I thought so. She, like myself, said that Olive Garden was her favorite place to eat, and after exchanging emails she gave me the recipe to my favorite soup there! Then there was Debby, who got married the same year as Janet, to her high school sweet heart. She enjoyed rodeos and had actually gone to the Denton fair 4 times so far this year! Next to her was Robin who was the mother of one son who was in the 6th grade and played football. She was happily married and just loved hanging out at home with her boys. (Like me!) Finally, there was Tami, our sweet hostess. About 2 years ago she married the love of her life. She has been a nurse for the past 20 years, and I sort of got the impression that she was a survivor of some sort of cancer. Some of her answers to the questions were very touching and she said that she was just thankful to be alive. The last questioned that was asked before I got up to get my dessert was, "What is something that you are grateful for tonight?" My answer was simple. I told them that I was thankful that my husband was able to watch our son, and I was thankful that Kim had invited me. I was glad that I had went, and I was glad I got the chance to meet those ladies. Kim was right, God had picked out a specific chair at a specific table just for me which led me to meet that fantastic group of women who blessed my socks right off!
No comments:
Post a Comment