Good to meet you

So after meeting some of my new community at feast the other night, I decided to go ahead and bring the whole crew to devotions. It was decidedly a risk because devotions are at 11:30 and that falls somewhere between right in the middle of nap time and lunch time for my guys. So here’s how it went…

We come in and as we are taking off our coats and shoes I do some introductions. When Tom asks Hunter his name, he replies, “I got snot.” Luckily Hunter is still a bit hard to understand and it passed unnoticed by everyone but Joe and me. We all hung out in the basement with the kitty and the Guitar Hero drum set while we waited for anyone else to show up. Tom politely pretended not to notice as the kids chased the cat with drumsticks and measured his door ways (we’ve toured a lot of prospective homes this week) as if we were moving in. Finally we decided that we were gonna be it this week and so we went upstairs to get started. Tom tossed a stack of Baha’i books and a Bible in the floor and said, “Grab one and find something to read.” Just as we all grabbed a book, Tom’s daughter and her friend walked in.

Liz, his daughter, has an amazing voice and picked up a guitar and proceeded to angelically play and sing a prayer. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. And Hunter’s response? He fell face first on the floor in the middle of the room and laid there with his hands over his head. Hannah then said, “Those aren’t the actual words to that prayer.” Okay, I was beyond red faced as Katheryn proceeded to tell us that we don’t have Baha’u'llah’s exact words, that it’s a translation from the Persian, and what matters is your heart as you pray. Rather than express my own views on the topic I try to redeem our family’s image as we sat in these kind people’s living room by just smiling and nodding.

Just then a timer dinged and we all jumped up, “Bread’s ready!!!” and escaped the awkward situation created by my less than tactful kiddos (gee, I wonder where they get that from?). Bread was good. Fellowship was good.

We are going to have dinner there next weekend with a bunch of geology professors with kids. Let’s just hope it goes a little smoother or that the other kids have as little tact as mine. My luck is about 50/50 considering that 5 year olds are generally known to be brutally honest.