When will I learn that God is in control?
The day started out rocky yesterday and seemed to be going downhill fast. First, the day started out with 14 special needs kids registered and only 4 volunteers signed up. Then, when I tried to print of some things needed for the night, I find that my computer and printer weren't communicating with each other... UGH! What a morning!
I quickly emailed Aubrey (who was being church secretary for the week) and she said that I could email her the necessary forms and she would print them off at the church. Which didn't "totally" work the way I wanted it to. She also informed me of a few people who said that they would be able to volunteer, along with a list of more "No's:"
Quickly my stress level was going from "high" to "super extreme high". I was pouring the coffee as fast as I could, but thought that maybe it would be a good time to bathe this whole project in prayer.
By 2:00pm, I was feeling a bit better. We had more volunteers and I was reminded that we were also going to be having dinner provided and that was all going well. I knew that we were going to have some kids that would benefit from a "quite room", so I picked up some toys (Mr. Potato Head, little people, etc...) from our house and took down to the church. I had a wonderful schedule planned for the evening and things were looking better.
By 5:00pm, Steve was at the church helping me set up and a few people started to come. The "schedule" said that at: 5:30pm the volunteers would get their assignments and we would have a time of prayer. Well... not everyone read my schedule. At 5:15pm families started to arrive. YIKES!! The first family to arrive was a "Spanish speaking only" family. Oh my... they were a new family and they had lots of questions. We scrambled quickly to find someone with more Spanish than i have(which isn't difficult, since I have none...) and between the two of us, we spoke to the family, answered their questions and helped them to fill out the registration form. While this was going on, more families arrived. Families were arriving faster than the volunteers. At one point, I did look around to find the quickest escape route, but decided that wouldn't be the best idea.
While I was helping out with new families, Aubrey was getting our "regulars" and our volunteers situated. Oh boy... I was so very thankful for Aubrey!.
By 6:15 all the volunteers and children had arrived. Quickly everyone was assigned a buddy and everyone seemed to be having a good time!
Dinner was a little late, but was wonderful! Burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Yummy! After dinner the kids did art projects, raced the remote control car, and then played outside. Buddies, special friends and sibs alike all had a wonderful time, smiles were seen on the faces of everyone. Time went by so quickly. Before we knew it, it was after 8:00pm and time to start thinking about cleaning up and getting ready for the snack and movie. By 8:30pm, everything had been cleaned up, and everyone was sitting in front of the T.V. with snack in hand, waiting for the arrival of parents.
About 8:45pm parents began to come. They all looked a bit rested and happy to see that their children had such a good time. This has been our best "Night Out!" so far. I am so thankful to all the wonderful volunteers (adults and teens).
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