faith
Our Christian faith is very important to us, and we believe a large part of our role as parents is to pass on that faith to our children. We both grew up in Christian families, where going to church, reading the Bible and prayer were central, and we want to continue that with our family. We have been involved in teaching our youth on Wednesday nights in the past, and look forward to doing that again now that Quill is old enough to attend. We consider a firm foundation in what we believe and why we believe it, to be the most important thing we can give to our children.
church
We attend church every Sunday as a family and have served in many ways off and on through the years. We’ve worked with the youth, been part of and led small groups, served as greeters and in the nursery, and Alex currently sings on rotation with the worship team. Every Easter, our church puts on a special Good Friday service and Joel plays the voice of several different characters in the production.
We really enjoy our church family and the friends we have there. They have been so supportive of us all along our fostering and adoption journeys and have loved Quill as their own from the very beginning. They’re already invested in the child we look forward to adopting and we know he or she will be welcomed into our community with open arms.
quiet times
Alex tries to include Quill in her Bible times by making an event out of it. She pulls a comfy chair up next to hers, supplies both of them with a hot cup of tea and a cozy blanket, and then they pray a short prayer together before Alex reads her Bible and Quill looks at his picture Bible, pretending to read. Sometimes he asks Alex to read to him, and that’s even better. Their time is usually VERY short in duration, but right now the goal is for him to see the importance of spending time with God. Alex is looking forward to more fruitful times together as he gets older.
bedtime routine
Every night our bedtime routine ends with all 3 of us together in Quill’s room. First we pray together, thanking God for the day and asking for sweet dreams. Then we sing through a favorite list of songs, including Rejoice In The Lord Always and Jesus Loves Me. Some of the other songs are silly and Quill sings at the top of his lungs, changing the words on purpose, while Joel uses silly voices. But other times Quill sings along seriously and surprises us by how well he knows the lyrics! After the singing is over, Alex tucks him in and kisses him goodnight, while Quill always requests that Daddy stay and play “games” with him, as he calls it. Then they go through the alphabet or books of the Bible together. It’s such a sweet bonding time and ends the day right, with our thoughts on Jesus.