Serving Others

The second Saturday of every month, our church sets up a few outreach opportunities. One regular event our family participates in is visiting a nursing home for Alzheimer patients. It is a family-friendly event as the residents love to watch and interact with little kids. 

Derek has been taking the girls every month for awhile now. I usually stayed home while Kyle took his morning nap. This month was the first time Kyle and I participated. We started our visit with some coloring. The kids colored cards and gave them out to the residents.  

 

We then sang a few songs and listened to a Bible story. We visited with the residents and then it was time to go. 

 

Before we left, we took some photos outside. 

At first, Karis liked visiting the nursing home but then decided she no longer enjoyed it. She says she doesn't like going because she can't understand the residents. Some are hard to understand and they often repeat the same statements or questions. We explain to her that we go to make them happy and that it means a lot to them since they can't go out and do the same things we do. She's had a good attitude about going and though she's not super excited to go, she goes with an open mind. The nursing home isn't the girls' favorite place to go but they always have good time. It's a good interruption of their me-centered world with some selflessness and serving. 

Karis - the servant?

This morning as I'm getting out of the shower I'm energetically greeted by Karis. She's holding a thin magnet (from one you'd find behind a paper notepad to secure to fridge) that is bent in half. She starts grabbing at my hand and saying something which I don't understand. As I ask her to show me where she got it and as she leads me downstairs, Lena pipes in that it's not a magnet but rather "nail clippers." Silly me for not realizing that! I quickly agreed to get my nails cut before heading into work.

Then a few minutes later as I'm ready to leave the bedroom and the house, Karis presents me with a cup of tea. She insists we have tea time. She has the sugar bowl and spoon, a few pieces of pastry, the tea pot, and syrup and ketchup to boot. ?? Of course, it was the best tasting sugary syrupy ketchupy tea I've ever tasted.

As I don't want Lena to miss out on this experience, I ask Karis to serve Momma a cup of tea also. Since Lena is under the weather, she's napping on the couch. I ask Karis to set it next to her for when she wakes. I explain that Momma is sick and needs rest. As I move the tea cup off Lena's face, Karis disappears for a moment. I hear her off in the corner saying "happy" as she grabs her play doctor kit and approaches Lena with the thermometer in hand (it has a happy face for 98.6 temp and a frown for 102.5 temp). So sweet! I encourage Karis to give Momma a shot to help restore her health. And Lena plays along asking for Karis to use the stethoscope to listen to her heart and chest, look into her ears and eyes, and take her blood pressure.

I've seen Karis attempt to "happy" Makena when she cries, but this was the first time I've seen her care for one of us parents. I love getting to participate in these special moments.