Nursery 101

Last weekend we took a trip back to Charlottesville to visit our old church. Adam needed to do some work in the computer lab at school and I was anxious to introduce Carter to friends who had only seen him via my growing belly. It was so much fun – everyone was thrilled to meet Carter and I had just a little bit of joy showing him off. :) We also managed to fit in a quick visit with my cousins and aunt – a definite bonus for the trip. (Thanks for letting us stop by on such short notice!)

I have missed going to church. Our church in Charlottesville provided good friends, fellowship, and a sense of family while our true family is many miles away. I know we will find that in our new city as well, but I have been afraid to explore the world of dropping off our sweet baby boy at the nursery. If we were still in Charlottesville, I feel certain we would be back at church and Carter would be a regular at the nursery. See, at my old church, I recognize all the names that volunteer to work the nursery and I would feel comfortable leaving Carter with those I had come to know over the years. But, that is not the case in a new city at a new church. I don’t even know where the nursery is at the church we want to visit, and definitely don’t recognize any names that work in the nursery.

I decided to take Carter to the nursery at our old church during bible study this past week to get a feel for how a nursery works. I asked lots of questions…what is a normal adult to baby ratio, are infants kept separate from older children, etc. I felt much more comfortable after my visit and called this week to talk to the Children’s Minister at the church we are thinking of visiting. The conversation brought even more comfort. At this church, Carter would be in the Bunny class…a class for babies that cannot crawl. Once babies can crawl, they are promoted to the Ducks class and so on. They have a beeper system to page the parents if babies become fussy or need to eat. They also have a pretty secure check in process with name tag and receipts to make sure babies are retrieved by only their parents at the end of the service. All in all, I was feeling about as good as I expected to feel after the conversation.

So, we are hoping to go back to church this week. We plan to take Carter to the nursery and attend both a bible study (with a class of other couples of young children) and the worship service. I am looking forward to it and will let you know how it goes.