Vacation Bible School

This post was supposed to be about Justin's experience as he completed his marathon run of vacation bible school programs (3 different programs in 2 weeks... one of which Jasmine attended as well). It was supposed to be a sappy read about how different his childhood experiences have been compared to my own. Or I could've gone a different route and shared Venesa's thoughts on going from homeschooling to sending two kids to school for a week (the drop off, the pick up, and when 3 hours of free time inevitably feels likes 20 minutes). But no... on the last day of VBS, during the end-of-week celebration, Justin and Jasmine decided to give me something much more interesting to write about: church brawls.

So picture this: Full assembly. All of the kids who attended this particular VBS are on stage with matching t-shirts, singing songs and performing skits. The audience is full of proud parents and clicking cameras. Justin and Jasmine are seated together on stage in the front row... for 30 minutes (strike one)... with no direct supervision (strike two).. and essentially nothing to do since they barely know the words to most of the songs (strike three). Enter disaster, stage left. Justin takes off his hawaiian lay. Jasmine offers to help put it back on. Gimme. No. Don't touch me. Put it on! Leave me alone. Push. Shove. Shove. Push. Punch. A flurry of slaps. Yes, they're fighting. Center stage. While the other (sane) children sing.  I'm in shock. Frozen. Mortified. Yep. Those are our kids, ladies and gentlemen: reenacting the highlights of the last Tyson-Holyfield boxing match for your entertainment. 

A million thoughts flood my head. Do I rush the stage and drag them out by their ears? Do I just wait it out? Which will cause a bigger scene; me escorting Push and Shove Reyes towards a prompt exit, or one throwing the other clear off the stage before I get there? Before I could make a decision, Justin grabs Jasmine in his most ferocious bear hug (which, of course is not very ferocious at all), squeezes the air out of her 20 pound frame as if to say, stop the violence! ... He lets her go... and they both turn and face the audience and jump right in on the final stanza of a song entitled (what else?) Friendship. Song ends. They sit down as if nothing ever happened. 

The longest 14 seconds of my life. 

First thing Monday morning, I'm putting them both up for adoption.

Follow the link for VBS photos from Emmanuel Baptist Church.