Ooooops!

It was bound to happen and today it did.

Occasionally people will ask me or my husband, how do you get anywhere on time with all those children? Or, how long does it take you to get everyone ready to go on Sunday morning? Have you ever forgotten someone?

Well, we are not always on time and this drives me nuts! I'm always terribly embarrassed to walk into a classroom late. I'd almost rather stay home than to arrive late! But, life's not all about me, is it? We don't always look the greatest, but we are mostly on time.

Sunday mornings are pretty easy if everyone is bathed and Sunday clothes are laid out and approved by me on Saturday night. As much as this helps, you would think that it would get done every Saturday night. Nope.

I hate to admit this, but Sunday mornings are often emotional and ugly as we struggle to leave the house at precisely 9am. Lately we have been doing better. I pair up a small child with a teenager for breakfast and dressing - typically Ralph/Richard, Leroy/Wesley, and Chipper/Jordan. They have one hour to dress and feed themselves and one child. I take care of Ruby, Rose and myself. That leaves Thomas to take care of himself.

Which brings me to this morning. Richard needed to be at church early because it was graduation Sunday. My mom is in town for the celebration and was ready early, so I rode to church with her and four children. Dad was not ready to go yet so we left and I figured that he would just bring everyone else.

When the church service had started, dad asked me where Thomas was. I figured that he ran off to sit with a friend. Dad asked me again when he didn't see him anywhere. I had no idea where he was. Then he said, "well, he rode here with you didn't he?"

No, he didn't.

It suddenly dawned on us that we had left him home. Alone.

After sending a teen back home to pick him up, we realized that he had been in the bathroom the whole time and didn't even know that we had already gone to church! I'm so thankful that we didn't forget him at a truck stop or a restaurant or we may have ended up on the evening news!