A Full House

The week the school ended the Independent Presbyterian Church Choir from Memphis Tennessee came to visit our church. They are a high school choir made up of about 60 kids and chaperons and they all needed places to stay. We had 8 girls stay with us... which was quite an adventure considering the my sister Emily and another girl from church also spent the night here. Somehow they each found a decent surface to sleep on and there were enough pillows and sheets to go around. We had a schedule of showers that went till 1am, along with a lot of late night giggling, midnight cookies in the oven and an explosion of suitcases, make-up, phone charges and clothes strewn throughout the house. I love to mother and entertain so it was loads of fun for me but the best part was that Rachel immediately bonded with the choir kids. She was like the queen bee the first night, all the girls were all sitting around listening to her tell about her less than conventional life, and with their interest she became very open. She also had a lot of fun flirting with all the boys in the choir but she was pleasantly surprised with their integrity. She commented on the way they treated girls and their commitment to remain pure... she doesn't know many guys life that. For the most part Rachel is on the periphery of our small youth group. Most of the kids have grown up together and attend a small private school in the area, and while they are nice to her they don't engage with her a lot. It was a joy to see her clicking with some of the the girls and guys from the IPC youth group. It was also great to see her leadership qualities emerge in such a positive way. So even though I barely got a wink of sleep the whole weekend and was doing loads and sheets and towels for days afterward it was wonderful to have these kiddos stay with us!