You Would Have Thought...

That I had nothing to post about. Not true. I just don't have the time to post about it. I actually had an absolutely AWESOME time this weekend at the Hearts at Home conference with my dear friend Jamie. We met up with some of the girls that went to her church in Cedar Falls and headed on northward.

Before we left though, we got to experience something absolutely awesome! The church Jamie used to attend had World Vision set up an AIDS Village in their auditorium. Very cool! You wore an i-pod and headphones and you walked through the life of an AIDS orphan (yes, all four stories were true stories). By the end of learning about their journey you end up in the clinic waiting to see if you have AIDS or not, some of the kids did, some did not. I don't know the three other kid's stories, but Immanuel did not have AIDS and I couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief that this child was safe from the disease and that someone did "take his card" so that he could be schooled and fed instead of living in the banana tree orchard by his mother's grave trying to eke out a living on his own. (His story took place from age three when his mother died to age six when his older brother took him to the clinic for his cough.) It was very visual and very hands-on and I have felt the desire to take on one of these children for quite some time and always come up with some excuse. I couldn't do the excuse thing after having experienced that. I mean, seriously, I can find somewhere in my budget full of the "cushy" lifestyle to spare $35 a month. So, I adopted John Baptist from Uganda.

The actual conference was a blessing to my soul and I utterly enjoyed getting to know Jamie's girlfriends. I felt like part of the group from the get-go and never once felt like a third wheel. It made me want to move to Cedar Falls so that I could get to know the girls better. :) Saturday night we skipped the Mom's Night Out and just hung out. It helped the others to be able to get caught up and helped me get to know them rather than just "crash their room". We ended up spending an hour and a half at Goodwill. We went all the way to Rochester, Minnesota and spent our time at Goodwill. Wow! Aren't we goofy? My mother-in-law will absolutely love that though. That's what she would have ended up doing too. :)

I was glad for the workshops I chose and hope that I will be able to take what I learned and apply it here at home for the betterment of my family and myself. It will take a lot of hard work (which I think I'm allergic to), but I think that I can become a better me if I will just take the time and effort to do that work. I have been feeling the need for an accountability partner and I think that Hearts at Home strengthened that desire. I have a few girls that I want to reach out to and possibly go in this direction, but I still have a lot of praying to do about the whole thing. Anyway, hopefully, by this time next year, Chris will be saying that he's seen such a change in me that he is sending me back again. Kevin Leman will be the keynote speaker next year, so that would be very nifty indeed!