I kept Em and Abs Saturday night and took them to church on Sunday morning. They are well known at my church, often providing comic relief, but accepted for the children they are.
Em looked great, even though at 10 years she thinks she is going on 16. Abs is Abs, has her own way of looking at the world, and generally manages to take everyone on the journey with her.
Em was born in Germany and I made this dress for her when she needed it for a school play. Abs thinks it is wonderful. They both have their Aunt B's sense of glitz, though not always her style. Abs chose to wear her German dress with pink cowboy boots and, though they do not show here, shorts and a purple petticoat with loose silk flowers encased between the layers. They look happy here but that was just a pose for the camera. You can tell by Em's posturing that she did not want to stand next to Abs.
I give the girls a couple of rules when we go to church. The rules are mainly to remind them of proper behavior when they are out of my reach. The most critical time they are out of my reach is when they go to the front of the church for the Children's Moment. The congregation loves this time and is very open and affirming. When Em and Abs are not there, I field a load of inquiries.
The lesson this Sunday was on yoked oxen and how we work together. A young ox is yoked to an older, more experienced ox, until s/he learns the task. To demonstrate this, the children were paired and one hand from each of the pair loosely linked. With their other hands behind their backs, they were supposed to use their linked hands to , cooperatively, pick up a snack bag of crackers. Food is usually enough incentive to effect cooperation.
Unfortunately, Abs and Em were sitting close enough to each other that they would likely be paired for this exercise. I prayed and held my breath, but God had other plans. The leader asked them to put their hands out to be linked. Abs waved a pipe cleaner person she had fashioned and announced it would be her partner while Em stood resolutely straight, her arms crossed in front of her, and her mouth clamped tightly into a determined line. Em said nothing. Abs happily told all.
"My sister won't touch me," Abs announced to the congregation while joyfully dancing around with her pipe cleaner person. "She says I have cooties."
Abs doesn't depend on others to make her happy, she revels in her own views of the world and reaches out to include everyone. The congregation was laughing and I was embarrassed, but now I wonder ......who taught the real lesson.
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