Our Lent adventure had begun!

We attended our church's Ash Wednesday service last night. I was not in the best mood after spending 2 hours waiting at the eye doctor's office. Chris and I both look forward to the Mardi Gras supper that is served before the jazz service. I was so afraid that I would miss them both. I almost missed the dinner but Chris saved me a plate. I got out of my car in such a foul mood and that made me even more mad. I love getting to church early and enjoying the fellowship of my church family and I was missing it!! But, as soon as I walked up the ramp and the door opened, it melted away. There was Chris looking out for me and he had our sweet little boy in his arms, trying to get him to take a nap. It just made everything else seem so non-essential. I was able to just calm down and enjoy being there. Dinner was FANTASTIC! Carla did an outstanding job on the sausage jambalya. Yummy!! By the time the service started, my entire being was energized. It was such a great service too. We have a jazz band come in and provide the music to our hymns. I almost started crying. I was standing there singing along and Keegan was snoozing so soundly in my arms. It made me think of this time last year while I was pregnant with Keegan. So much hope and anticipation filled me then. We would never have believed how much he changed our lives and filled them with life. Keegan did wake up during the service and was in a fantastic mood. He kept smiling at Sally, one of our favorite people. We also took him up to the altar to have ashes put on his forehead too. That also made me cry since it symbolizes so much. After the ashes were placed, we went over to the side where they set up two large panels of burlap with black crosses painted on them. Before the sermon, our preacher gave us slips of paper that we were to write what we were given up for Lent. His son took them and put them in a coffee can and burned them. He then took those ashes and mixed them with black paint. We used the black paint to paint crosses on the burlap panels. Everyone at the service did this. They will take the panels and hang them in the sancutary during Lent so we can see that we are not alone during this time. It reminded me again of last year when we painted our two crosses and a tiny cross. This year, we painted two crosses with the inner crossbars angled down to a smaller cross. We left feeling so filled - just the way we need to be.