Bible Study Success

So today was the big day.

Charlotte started saying, "No, no!" as soon as we entered the parking lot.

I stayed calm and ran through what we practiced again.

She said, "Listen to God?" which meant she wanted to come to my class with me and "sit quietly and listen to God," as I instructed her last week.

I told her no, the rules said babies have to go to the kids class.

She became truly upset. I knelt beside her and comforted her. I told her that I would listen to her feelings, and then we were going to go inside. She clung to me like crazy as we entered. I walked up to one of the new teachers and introduced her to Charlotte and said she would be needing lots of love to help her with the transition. The regular teacher came up and tried to take Charlotte out of my arms, saying, "I'll take her, she knows me."

Charlotte clung on even tighter. I took her to sit at a little table and talk about all the fun things in the room. Then I gave her a big hug and kiss, like we had talked about me doing, and said I loved her and would see her later. She tried to grab at my legs as I walked away, and the teacher picked her up. I suggested that they take her outside ... something that has always calmed and distracted her in the past.

As I left, she was screaming bloody murder. I took a pager, and walked away choking back tears, feeling empathy for my little girl and also feeling sure they would be calling me back minutes later and we'd have to give up on Bible study. I joined the pre-study fellowship time, but was on edge and resigned to not staying.

Then, one of the Judy's came to me and said she had just checked in the nursery and Charlotte was playing happily!!

I enjoyed an uninterrupted time of study and fellowship during the small group time. Toward the end of the large group wrap-up, my pager vibrated. I excused myself and the ladies sitting next to me whispered that they were so happy for me that she had lasted so long.

As I got closer to the nursery, however, I didn't hear any crying. Maybe they paged me for a dirty diaper?

Nope, they hadn't paged at all! They told me it must have been a low battery alert. Charlotte saw me and I debated whether to just get her and go home. She said, "Hi mama," and went back to playing!

So I went back to the last few minutes of the large group wrap-up. When it was really time to pick up Charlotte, she ran up to me smiling and I said, "Hi Charlotte! Mama came back!"