when the world. tries. to blow itsef up from the inside i. will dig. a fox hole for... eleventy seven.

i love church. i really do. it's something that i look forward to every week. but this week something was a little bit dirrerent. in a good way. :)

i got to church this morning at around 10:10. nothing new. my mom is always a few minutes late.
i walked into the sanctuary. but my dad wasn't standing in the back row this time. he was in the foyer (sp?) and my sister wasn't there either. strange
i looked around for my sister. i found her with her best friend lena. the two of them were sitting in the third row on the far right. kool. i get to sit behind amanda and collette
i saw amanda, towering above me in her high heels as always, standing right in front of us.
and that's when i noticed it. chris and collette. they were in the first row and i had a perfect view of them. michael was singing the next song now, but chris and collette were in perfect unison. it was amazing. their feet were tapping at the exact same time. it was definitely a woah moment for me. i never knew how alike they truly were.
the song continued and i noticed ethan on stage. playing bass guitar the same way he does every sunday. but he turned red. and i mean red red. it was scary. he started grabbing his throat in the middle of the song. i looked around to see if anyone else noticed. nobody did. thank goodness it lasted only a few seconds. he shook it off and kept playing.
and of course we can't forget amy and isaac. (aka: youth pastor's wife and their month old baby) amy was singing along and little baby isaac was just in awe of his mommy. yes i know he's only a month old, but i saw it. i saw an itty bitty smile creep across his face. i know i did. and amy just kept on swaying and singing.
and then there's jona. (aka: youth pastor) i expected him to be looking at isaac. he did glance that way a few times. but other than that he focused on playing his guitar. altough i can't say the same about the first week isaac came to church. haha.
and then i saw dear old brenda. she's got a beautiful boy named lawrence. i swear he and sierra are going to get married someday even if they are only 4. lol. i don't think i've ever met brenda's husband. if i have it was only briefly. i think he has black hair. i remember seeing him in a car when he came to pick her up one day. but that's all i remember. she's such a nice lady.
and of course at the altar call, my best friend and practically sister emily went to pray with amanda and christine(aka: amanda's mom) mike started a new song. and i realized the silence of the place. heck even little baby isaac didn't make a single cry. afterwards... well that's another story. haha.
and as mike started to pray, i opened my eyes for a quick second. and i'm so glad i did. i saw my baby sierra nicole hugging her mommy. she's such a cutie.
now of course i saw other people at church but it is a small church. i love the atmosphere. it's so welcoming. and everyone is so sweet and caring there.
heck evie is practically my third grandma. my youth group is closer to me than my family is. i know it's kinda weird. but they've always been there for me. they've seen my ups and downs. but i try to hide the downs. nobody likes those.
but today made me realize that if there's one place that i belong in this world, it's at church.
now i will admit, my youth group is so crazy and nerdy and just plain weird that sometimes we're dysfunctional. and yes we have slime wars and sumo wrestle in our spare time. and ok fine we play chubby bunny waaaayyyy too much and we come up with random awkward phrases in our spare time. heck we're probably the most non-normal group of people you'll ever meet.
but i've never been more proud to call anybody my family. so if you guys are bored and just so happen to be reading this, i just want you to know that i love you guys so much! thank you! :D

-hope ona rope (you can thank ethan and sean for that nickname)