Trip Home

For my birthday weekend in June (33 baby!), I was able to attend the Gospel Coalition Womens Conference in Orlando, FL with some girl friends. It was such a fun weekend and we loved catching up, hanging out, eating heath-bar cookies and having a time of spiritual renewal. This weekend came at a great time for me...I really felt like I needed to get away a little bit and it was a perfect time of relaxation with 0 responsibility and 0 Spanish!


My birthday dinner at Opa's

This place was a fun Greek restaurant and is unlike anything I've ever been to. They have a DJ in the middle with belly dancers all over the restaurant. Every once in a while they will throw napkins from the ceiling and everyone will dance on tables and scream. Sometimes they get everyone up and you dance in a line around the restaurant.

Since it was my birthday, they brought me out a dessert and made me get on the table with one of the dancers. They sang, I blew out the candle and we all danced a little while to Michael Jackson. The dancer told me congrats on my birthday and congrats on the baby. When I told her I was having a girl she said "Oh, maybe she will grow up and be a belly dancer." I just wasn't sure how to respond to this. haha

What a fun night!

Crazy napkin throwing

And here is proof that we actually did go to the conference. This is one of the sessions done by John Piper. Some other speakers were Tim Keller and his wife, Don Carson, Susan Hunt, Nancy Guthrie and Paige Benton Brown to name a few. I hope to go back again! It was amazing! If you'd like to listen to any of the sessions online for free, go to this link.

And I found out there was a Chick-fil-a a few minutes from our hotel and the girls were nice enough to let me go and get my fix. I hadn't had Chick-fil-a in about 6 months! It was perfect.

This finished out our quick weekend in Orlando and the girls kept joking with me that I should just go back to Memphis with them on Sunday. I seriously started thinking about and realized that it could be possible. I called my dad on Saturday asking him about flying me home, and after working on it all day, he surprised me Saturday night and said to come on home! I was ecstatic! At the last minute I was able to fly home on my birthday and spend a week with my family and some friends. It was perfect.

My cousins came in town also and we went to lunch with our Mimi

Dinner with Lisa, Angie and Kim

Erin and I had to take a picture together with our babies. We are due one week apart and we have already arranged their marriages (I'm having a girl, she's having a boy). I look way bigger than her though...unfair.

And one night some girls surprised me with a little baby shower at Humdingers. So sweet of them to think of doing this for me and baby Ally.

 

Lots of cute girl clothes

Can't believe I'm going to be a mom of 3

Katie, Holly, Jami, Tricia, Me and Kelcie

It was a great end to a week of fun and relaxation. We won't be returning home for another year so I was so glad I was able to visit Memphis while I was in the States. Will was there for a few days and the kids stayed for a few weeks after I left. I'm glad we all the opportunity to visit home.

Family picture...with everyone!

Me with the little bro

So glad I got to hang with my sweet niece Lindley Belle. I've only seen her once since she was born and she will change so much by the time I see her again! I think she's excited about having a new little girl cousin.

I just had to share this. This new Coke machine was at Firehouse Subs and I saw one again in the Atlanta airport. I have to admit, I just had to stare when I saw it. It's a computerized Coke machine with about 120 options for drinks. I think this was the most glaring shocker of American life to me when I was back. So many choices of everything!

And because there were so many choices on every screen, it ended up taking me FOREVER to make a decision! Quickness and efficiency was lost in my having too many choices. So funny.

Being able to go home was an unexpected blessing I will never forget. We love our family, friends, church and supporters and our visit gave us the boost we need to finish strong in our time in language school. We love y'all so much!