Mother's Day

Here are the girls before church Sunday. They LOVE getting on dresses and tights and church shoes. Too bad they didn't love being at church so much this time. For the first time ever, they were both awful and we had to leave the service early. Once we walked out to settle them down, Sophia really stopped misbehaving. We decided to try one more time, but Stella just wouldn't give up. She wanted to climb and play and talk, etc. I was so sad because they had a Mother's Day luncheon after church and I really wanted to attend and meet some other moms at our church. So, because we had to leave early and we were all dressed up, we decided to go out for lunch. We tried 3 nice restaurants and all were packed, even though it was only 11:30! We decided to just go home and eat and ate out for dinner.

The sweetest part of my day was when I was grabbing a sweater before church and Drew was getting the girls in the car. Sophia came looking for me and found me in the closet. She walked in and said, "I thought you were in the bathroom." and then in the cutest little voice she said, "I wanted to tell you Happy Mother's Day." I almost started crying because it was just so cute. I guess Drew had been prepping them that morning while I slept a little late.

Sophia has been bouncing off the walls the last few days with excitement that Yiayia and Papou are coming to visit. She LOVES having company and especially loves having people sleep over. I've realized that there is nothing more exciting for a 3 year old than having someone to wake up in the morning! We've been counting down the days...Sophia counts by how many more times she has to go to sleep. I can pretty much guarantee that she will not nap Thursday because she'll be so excited that they're coming. She even has an outfit picked out for when they arrive! We're going to the Greek Festival this weekend and I'm sure we'll have so much fun! Drew and I are working at it Saturday night so the girls will have Yiayia and Papou to themselves for a few hours. This will be the first real time the girls have had someone else watch them for a substantial period of time (and handle bedtime!) since before Stella was born! The girls have only been watched two times EVER by someone besides me or Drew. First, about 6 months ago when Drew had his wisdom teeth out our neighbor watched them for about two hours one morning and second, last week my friend watched them for two hours so I could go interview for a part-time job. That's it, EVER!!! This is a big deal for me and them! I love my girls but I am so excited for an adult social event (even though we'll technically be working).

Drew has an interview in a few weeks so the girls and I will be on our own for two days, but at least it's not longer. I wish we could go but Drew really can't take the time off for us to all drive. If anything comes of the interview, we'll go up and check out the area. It's hard to believe that our time here in SC is quite possibly going to end after this summer. We have come to love it here (aside from the bugs and humidity) and have made some really great friends. Sophia has more friends than I can count (or than she can keep track of!) and I have lots of great blossoming friendships. Sometimes I can't believe that we're going to give it up, but family really does mean more than anything. To see our girls light up when family visits, and then to think that if we stay here that only happens a few times a year hurts. It kills me to think that I could deprive my girls of more time with people that automatically love them just because they are alive by living so far away. We could certainly have more here (a MUCH bigger, nicer house, private school for sure, more vacations, etc) but at what cost? The cost is having to regret not having our girls grow up closer to family. I didn't have that and know what a blessing it was for Drew to have family live so close. We can love our girls with every part of our being and it's still not going to replace being close to grandparents. We are keeping our prayers strong for a great job closer to the New England area and ask for your prayers, too!

In closing, I will leave a little quote from Sophia. We were talking about going to church last weekend (we hadn't been in awhile but talk about it a lot) and Sophia asks about the priest a lot. We have told her that you can't talk because what the priest has to say is really important. She looked at me last weekend and said, "Mom, I know what the priest's name is." I said, "You do? What is it?" Sophia replied, "God." How cute is that!!! She was telling Stella about all the pictures in a Christmas book today and knew Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus. I was so proud of her! More cute quotes to come tomorrow....