Bella goes to church

I took Bella to church this morning for the first time since she was an infant. I was a little nervous about it because she's so active and I knew she'd stay with the congregation for about 20 minutes after the service started.

This is our first time attending this particular church (Crossroads Ministries*), so I didn't know that I shouldn't worry about it. The first 15 minutes were all praise band worship - so it was some really cool and upbeat music. Bella danced and clapped in her chair the whole time! Well, there was a few minutes when I went into panic mode bc she wanted to lay in the aisle, but no one seemed to care and I was able to get her back into her seat.

Then they dismissed the children and Bella went to the 2 year olds' room. Most of the children were fine, but several of the were crying (including those much older than Bella) and trying to stay with their parents. My Baybell went right in and started playing with the toys and smiling at the teachers.

All in all - I was so proud of my big girl! There were 900 people in attendance today (there was a carnival afterward, but there are normally 600 some people ... so it's a really big church ... but Bella handled it all in stride! Also, we saw the Mosses today -- and Bella wanted to do everything James and Nathanael did, which tickled me. She's definitely leaving the baby years behind!

Don't you just want to hug her?!

*I remember when Crossroads first started, it was in a tiny room on Main Street in Broadway and was an outreach ministry for bikers. We went a few times, but didn't stay because Javi's biological grandfather attended as well. Anyway, it's neat to see how this huge congregation developed from such humble means!