This falls growth group was about parenting and it felt so nice to be able to sit down and talk with parents that are a lot like us. It is nice to know NOBODY knows what they are doing! If you are like me you see all these parenting blogs that tell you how to do things and be a better parent. You think "Wow! They really have their act together!" but really behind closed doors they are probably just as lost as you and I. Being in my growth group I was able to see that through the other parents that I would have thought had their act together.
Moving 2 hours away from everything I have known since I was in first grade was really hard for me. What made it harder was the fact that I was a stay at home mom so I really didn't have much opportunity to make a whole bunch of new friends. I was blessed that Bridgette started Kindergarten and I was able to volunteer there to be one of the class party planners and was able to make friends through that and through my daughters friends parents. Some of my very good friends now I made through her school.
Now I have been blessed again to join a great growth group with awesome people! I was so nervous about starting this growth group because I have made many mistakes and haven't been going to church my whole life. Would I be able to open up? Would I be judged? It really did terrify me to join. I was so blessed to choose the group that I did. They are fantastic people and I opened up a lot. Actually I opened up a lot more than I should have but I have that fantastic thing called diarrhea of the mouth and I always tell people my whole life story.
I was never judged once, even though I have made a lot of mistakes. I had gotten so much encouragement and prayers for Eli, that has truly blessed me. Best of all I have made new friends, which being a stay at home mom has been very hard to make friends. It also opened up my mind to different things. One mom in my group homeschool's her kids. I never in a million years would have even thought about homeschooling my kids. Sending my kids to school= freedom for me! I will take it and Bridgette has been flourishing in school. It is nice to be able to talk to her and see that not every kid is same and some don't flourish in public schools because they learn way to differently. I am way more open minded to homeschooling my kids now. I really commend her for doing that for her kids.
Another mom we found out is expecting her second baby, well third if you count her step-daugher. Her and the group leaders, which are the children's pastor and his wife, were the ones who I thought had their act together. They still are wonderful parents but with talking with them they tell me about the struggles they have had. The parenting struggle is real, people! It was nice to bounce off ideas of what we do back and fourth off of each other. Nobody is a perfect parent, but as long as your trying you are a great parent. Another couple has teenagers so it was nice to hear things from veterans in this whole parenting arena. Having teenagers both excites me and terrifies me.
We have had so much fun doing this. If you think twerking is something that shouldn't be done at a church function, you are wrong and should go talk to my husband. We love to play this game called head's up and twerking was one of the things they had to act out. It was men vs women and that came up to act out. Well my husband did it and I have never laughed so hard! It was nice to have our kids play with other kids and be able to have a little bit of adult time. Eli's surgery is next month right in the middle of the new growth group series but we are still planning on joining as soon as we can. The new message series and growth group is called "Transformed" its a whole church wide thing so if you wanted to see what the Bible and God is about come out to Heritage Church (www.experienceheritage.org) if you are in the Macomb, MI area.
This has been an awesome experience for us but as they say, all good things come to an end. That isn't a bad thing though, it just means that you get to have many new beginnings.
Peace and Love,
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