Church goers

We are Catholic and I do my best to take the boys to Mass each weekend. There are some days that I leave the church wondering why I bothered. There seems to be nothing about going to church that boys enjoy. They do not enjoy dressing up (although in our house that term simply means khaki pants and a polo). They do not enjoy getting up early. And they certainly do not enjoy being quiet for one hour. But I go. Every weekend.

This Sunday, as we were standing in church I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Mrs. Kamenski, a woman I have known since we moved to Martinsburg when I was 10. She asked if we would like to take the gifts to the altar. Surprised, I said 'sure.' After all, Mass had gone really well so far and the boys had been quiet. I turned around and looked at Trent who was standing nicely beside my dad and I smiled. Then I looked down at Ian who was grinning from ear to ear looking somewhat like Mr. T with five rosaries around his neck and I wasn't smiling anymore.

As thoughts of certain disaster went through my mind I got the rosaries off of Ian and we went to the back of the church. Kindly, the ushers had pretty much figured who should carry what and, with some adjustments, we started walking down the long center isle of St. Leo Church. About half way down, when I realized things may not be a total disaster, I started thinking about how amazing it was that I was there, once again walking down the isle beside my dad: just as we had done on the day of my wedding and just as we had done on the day of my mom's funeral. But this time my kids were walking with us. It occurred to me as I walked with them what a blessing it is to have them and to still be here with all of them.

It was amazing how relieved, happy and enlightened I felt when we had given the gifts to Father Brian and turned to leave. So when we walked back down the isle I wasn't even phased when a classmate stuck his hand out and Trent gave him a rather loud high five. The boys were so proud of themselves and I hoped it would start off a good trend in church-going. Well, until we got into the car and Trent said, "that was fun but we still don't have to go back until next week...right?" OK, so we are a work in progress!