Last day with the kids

On Sunday morning, the humans had gone to church for Sunday School.  Al and I were going to join the family for 2nd service.  Kobi was sad his family had left.

 Al and I showered and also packed up the car before going to church ourselves.

Hannah was on the worship team!  We picked a great weekend to see the family!

(Isn't it funny how in many churches people don't want to sit on the front rows?)

 Adam preached on parables.  Today's sermon was on the sower.  One teacher said it should be called the Parable of the Soils.  What kind of soil are we?

Do we listen to the Holy Spirit as He instructs us or are we "stiff-necked" - not turning to Him?
    Is my soil rocky? not allowing the seed to grow?
          Is my soil shallow?  When suffering comes, the seed withers because it has no root.
   Other seed falls among thorns that choke out the Word.
Do I take in the Word of God?  Do I have a firm foundation?

Suffering often softens a compact soil; softening us to Him. But some people harden their hearts to the Lord.  They shake their fists at God when trials come, blaming Him, rather than taking His hand and holding onto Him as He takes them through hard times.
 

After church, Jill took the older girls to the school to get ready for the play. (Sophie had to perform several times - on Friday for the gradeschools, then in the evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.)  Hannah was going to help hand out tickets so she needed to be there early too and Jill was going to save seats!  Adam was going straight from church to be a parent back stage helper.

We took Claire and stopped at her favorite place - Arby's!

Here is a side story:  A while back, we got a call from Claire.  She was all excited.  You see, they have been trying to get us to move to Wisconsin ever since they moved there 3 years ago.  But Papa has said he is unhirable at age 64.  No one wants a pharmacist at that age, when they can hire a guy straight out of college for less $$.  Plus, how long would an old guy work, right?  Well, Claire had gone to Arby's with her mommy on a date and she saw a sign.

So  she called him to tell him she had a job for him in Wisconsin and we could move there!  Isn't that so sweet?  

After lunch, Kobi gave us a show.

I took him for a walk - he was so excited to be outside!  I got to thinking, with the COVID19 now, won't he get so very spoiled having his human family with him ALL THE TIME!!! 

Then we went to see Sophia's play one more time.  Great seats in the middle!  Thanks to Jill and her saving powers!

 When the play was finished, we went back to the house.  Jill and the girls went with the entire cast to Culvers to celebrate!  Luckily, Culvers knew they were coming.  They do this each year.

Adam's family came to the house and had brought supper for us.  Before supper though, Adam took us all downstairs to show us Kobi's skills.  They trained Kobi to run on the treadmill when the weather is so cold, like -20 outside.  Jill can't handle walking him outside in such cold temps!

For dessert, Sandi had S-mores and had each of us read Bible verses as an object lesson to go along with it.  Sandi is so creative that way!!

The Utechts had to leave before Jill and the girls came home as they had their church community group coming to their house.  

It was time for us to get on the road too.  We thought it would be best to get out of the family's hair so they could unwind from such a busy, busy weekend!  

I want to share some pictures from the girls' rooms first to show their artistic expression:

My heart is FULL seeing how God is using our children/grandchildren's lives!!  So sad that Allen doesn't want to work for Arby's (ha!!)  We will miss these kids SO MUCH!!!  And now with the COVID19, who knows when we will see them again?

We thought we'd drive for about 4 hours or so. 

We made it to Cedar Rapids for the night.