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  • Day 5

    Baptists, Brides and Brambles

    July 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Our first night's sleep was so much more successful than anticipated. Even though the kids were so tired the night before and didn't get to bed until 10:30, I still gave them Phenergan and it worked well at keeping them sleepy all night. Adalia awoke at 4:30am, and woke poor Sammy, but I told them to lie quietly in their beds until morning, and they both fell back asleep. (Sammy doesn't remember being awake.) I woke everyone up at 8:30!!
    Unfortunately Sammy hadn't quite caught up on sleep after his 30 hours being awake, and he is possibly unwell with a cold, so he was reluctant to do ANYTHING. At the hotel breakfast he lay his head on the table and cried, and not even a croissant could cheer him up.
    We made our way Uptown to Redeemer Baptist Church for their 11:30am Classical Sunday Service.
    Along the way we caught a Subway Train and I watched Adalia's terrified eyes find mine when she heard the clatter of the train approaching. We meandered through Central Park where Samuel rediscovered his fascination with Squirrels, and we crossed the road out of the Park and the contrast between the uniquely bent branches of threes and the spectacle of the straight towering buildings is striking.
    We coax the kids along in an effort not to be late to church as they have "lock outs" like at the theatre, you wait outside until and appropriate interval before you can enter. We made it just in time and sit to the left hand side. As this is our second time at Redeemer (we are practically regulars) I'm not as overwhelmed by the "production", but once again I am impressed with its polish. Every word that is spoken on stage has been thought through and provokes a stirring in my heart. The explanation of the prayer of confession; that we confess our sin before God not to show Him or us how terrible we are, rather we rejoice that our sin is forgiven because Jesus took it away; makes saying the words so much more meaningful. The bible reading was more a dramatic monologue and was so moving, so powerful. And the musicians were amazing to watch.
    However all good things must come to an end, as it was time to take Adalia to the toilet. A lady kindly let us go before her in the line that was rapidly growing behind us, forming an audience to the drama that is my daughter. We discovered that the toilets were auto flushers; ADALIA's WORST NIGHTMARE!!! I don't know what people thought was going on behind the closed door but the dialogue went something like this;
    Adalia- "I don't want to, I'm scared"
    Me - "It's fine, it won't hurt you"
    Adalia screaming- "NO! I DON'T WANT TO"
    Me- "Just do it would you"
    Adalia -NOOOO!!!!"
    Me- "I'll give you an ice cream, just do it"
    This scenario was only mad worse when Tom attempted taking her after me. Imagine the same dialogue, but in male toilets...
    We hightailed out of there and found some street markets to camouflage into. We were contemplating our next adventure when we realised it was 1pm and we should eat lunch even if we weren't hungry, to help our bodies adjust.
    We were close to shake shack and while we had maccas for dinner last night, we embraced the beef sandwich and fries and went again. This time we took our food away, and dined in Central Park amongst the finches and the rats.
    After lunch we strolled around the park counting squirrels and rats. We walked through a section called "The Ramble" and it was brambles of berry bushes. Adalia of course got too close and immediately broke out in a rash, but how was I to know she was sensitive to brambles.
    It seemed that at every turn there was a bride having wedding photos. We even saw a girl get proposed to on an the iconic Bow Bridge with a Tiffany's box. Adalia loved all this, and was particularly overwhelmed with an incident in the toilets. We found the Central Park public toilets which were in every way disgusting, including an overflowing toilet, I tried to hurry my toilet phobic girl through the process so we could get out of there, but our exit was blocked by a lone bride, with no bridesmaids or helpers of any kind trying to get out of her dress. A lady who couldn't speak much English was helping her unbutton the back as the bride tried to shimmy out of it whilst gripping on to a large bag. I offered to hold the bag which she flung at me, and she peeled off her dress to reveal underwear that said "dreams can come true!!!" The whole situation was absolutely mind boggling. What was going on?! I wouldn't want my wedding dress to be within 100m of those toilets, I didn't want my scrappy old dress I was wearing to be in there. Adalia had no idea what was happening but animatedly described the whole thing to Tom and Sammy.
    Poor Samuel was fading quickly, but it was too early to return to our accommodation and go to bed. We tried taking them to two different playgrounds but Sammy just sat next to me and watched Adalia play. Not even a stop at Grand Central Station could distract Sammy from his misery.
    We slowly made our way back, opting to walk as it would take a bit longer, but in the end poor Tom was carrying both children.
    We returned to our room at 5:30pm and the kids happily watched TV for an hour before it was time for bed.
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