Blind Date

Max had his first play date in our neighborhood yesterday! There are lots of young families in our parish with stay-at-home moms, and our priest got us in contact with a few. I had been playing phone tag with one woman, and we finally made plans to get together.

We are not naturally early risers, as you all know. We planned to get to their house between 8:30 and 9:00, which meant that I had to get up before 7:30 to get myself and the boys ready in time. Yuck. I know that doesn't sound early to some, but we are all naturally night owls and Max will sleep in til at least 8:30 most mornings if I let him. But amazingly, we were up, dressed and ready to go by 8:25!

8:25 am

We drove less than six blocks to meet Jennifer and her family: a six-year-old boy, twin four-year-old boys and an eight-month-old girl. What a beautiful family! She was so nice, and the kids were sweet and polite. Max had a couple of rough moments ("Want to play the PIANO!") but overall did very well for being a 2 year old in a brand new space.

Jennifer is really connected to NET ministries, an evangelization program that started in the Twin Cities, and she informed me that many of the NET "graduates" end up settling in West St. Paul. They want to stay near each other to have a support system and to let their kids grow up together. That means there are tons of young Catholic families within blocks of us! We knew we loved the area, but we had no idea when we signed our mortgage papers how great the community would be!