2007 First Christmas of Many

The amount of presents was almost ridiculous. People who normally do not exchange gifts with us sent gifts to celebrate Akins first of many Christmas's in the U.S. There were three personal things Akins asked Santa to take care of for him and Santa was kind. The first was a train, next an important man and finally a Bee for the boy next door. This last gift was kind of important as Akins had borrowed a toy and the dog had unfortunately chewed on it. So, the request was a pretty desperate move to replace the damaged toy without the boy ever knowing it was damaged. Does anyone know how hard it is to find Happy Meal toys after they have gone away? Ebay is a definate must for Santa. As it turned out despite the really cool train from Santa and the riding Jeep from Mommy and Lorea the Bee's were the biggest hit of the day. When Akins opened these he jumped up and down and hugged them shouting "My bees, my bees"! I'm pretty sure he thought he was going to have to confess and really did not want to. Of all the gifts my personal favorite of his was the puzzle of America complete with photos of the AFAA kids on their respective states, compliments of Abegail and Eman. Thanks guys! Here are the photo highlights of the night before and Christmas day.

Organized religion and faith...

Today I challenged my family and asked them to join me in attending a church function. This to some is like and so? To us it is major step out or perhaps in, that is into the world of organized religion a place I have ventured away from and do not have a great deal of faith in, to me much different then having faith or a belief in a God.

I was not sure what reaction I would get from Lorea when I cast upon her my thoughts around the importance of Akins knowing the church. To me the church did one good thing in my own upbringing, it scared me to good. Meaning it served what appears to be its purpose instilling "fear of God" and the consequences. It was out of that fear that I managed to stay out of trouble or at least as much trouble as I would no doubt have liked to experience. Lorea cringed at the thought of it and was reluctant and I think really would have liked to stay home rather than go. Next was Grandma. When asked if she would like to attend the holiday concert she said "Is Lorea going"? I laughed and said "Why? Power in numbers"? She said "No, I was thinking if she was going then I wouldn't have to". Somewhat reluctantly she agreed to go as well.

Now keep in mind we have not attended any churches in the Tulsa area so we were venturing into complete and foreign grounds. I had spent some time trying to find a church that is suitable to our beliefs and one that would not ridicule the make up of our family. Not the easiest task in the bible belt. After two days of surfing I selected a church that had a Christmas program and figured we could check out the church before having to endure a sermon and the overwhelming quiet of a sanctuary. This church boasts its accepting of all people, despite martial status (Mom divorced check), race (white and black family, check) and sexual orientation (check) okay sounds perfect. I expected it to be small and unintimidating - wrong huge and swarming, lots of hallways, confusion about where to go, but we found the sanctuary swarming and bustling with talk and commotion thankfully loud and not quiet at all as we settled into a pew. Soon the music began and it even contained an African traditional song (despite the fact that Akins was the only black person I saw in the whole place) complete with drums making Akins very happy and a Sarah McLachlan song making Lorea very happy. An hour later we realized Akins had been good, people complimented us on what a beautiful and well mannered child we had and we had survived. Maybe we will even go back, he wants to sing.