Anniversary Sunday

I really struggle with remembering to put blogs up here. So please do forgive me and enjoy the story I’ll share.
Our anniversary Sunday was May 18th. We had planned to celebrate it on the 11th of May, but were quickly reminding that all the Catholic churches were holding their baptisms on that day. We decided to push our celebration to the following week, so that all of our members could be present.
So, early May 18th, four women showed up at our house to help me cook the riz gras we were making for everyone that day. We planned for around 75 adults and 125 kids. In the past, I would have considered for more children. However, in recent months, our numbers have dropped considerably. We’d only been averaging around 40 kids each week the weeks prior to the anniversary.
However, as we were cooking and packing the food, Mike called me from the church to tell me at 8:45 there were already around 140 kids at church. We had told them that we would have food. Note to self…..So, we filled every bag we owned to give to the kids. That totaled 198. At the end of service, we counted all the kids and discovered we had 221 kids in attendance. Where’d they all come from!!!! I have no idea. There were so many new faces in the group. I was happy to see them, but not prepared for them. We ended up telling them each to grab a friend and hold on to their hand and get in line. If there’s one thing I’m quickly learning here, when there’s food involved…..WATCH OUT! For the next 45 minutes, it was absolute MADNESS. The kids came to the gate without their friend, so they had to go back to where they’d left them and get back in line. After they’d made it through the gate with their friend, so many of them lied to say they hadn’t received any or ended up climbing back over our wall back into the courtyard to get back in line with a new friend. UGGHHHH! Live and learn.
I have to laugh at it all now. But I think the kids were frustrated too, because our numbers dropped again in the weeks that followed. I’m thankful to say they are picking up again. But we all learned some very valuable things that day, and I will hash out every bit of info gained before I even think about doing something like this again. But what can you say? Ca va aller. (It’ll be okay…..)