Retreat

The retreat was great. Wonderful. Amazing. We laughed, cried, relaxed and talked....a lot. The talking was probably my favorite part. I needed this weekend. I needed it bad and I'm so thankful I was able to go. Here are my 2 roomies for the weekend.

I couldn't have asked for more in them. They are both such good listeners and truly give honest and valuable advice. I've known them both for over 2 years but I know them better now, deeper and more intimately. I have a new appreciation for their perspectives and thoughts and I'm so thankful they have been brought into my life.

Here is the beach where we stayed. The feeling of the warmth of the sun against my skin is a sensation I never grow tired of and I enjoyed hours of it.

Upon arrival they gave us each one of these bags from Uganda. One of the missions this church supports is helping Ugandan villages become self-sufficient so the purchase of these bags helped one village in a big way. Matt calls it my "cow bag" because when they first handed them out and they were all in one room, it smelled like cattle to me. I guess it goes to show they are probably authentic.

There were a total of 420 women at the retreat and I loved that. Sometimes we filled an entire convention space, other times we were broken into smaller break out sessions with 3o or so people. Yet other times it was a small gathering of 7 "sisters" for the weekend where we were matched with another room and given some questions that really got things moving. Even yet still it was sometimes just the 3 of us in the security of our room where we had the comfort to bare all both physically and emotionally.

I wish I could go into the details of the ways I was refreshed, loved and spoken to but I don't feel the need right now. I got back on Saturday and I've waited for the feeling that comes when I need to purge onto this blog. It didn't happen which tells me that perhaps this was meant for me and me alone. Even as I type this and sit and I think, I honestly don't believe I have the words to describe it anyway.

I will mention something that was a big eye opener for me though. There were numerous sessions on various topics to choose from and one of the ones I was really looking forward to going to was a parenting session. Matt often jokes that my night stand needs a card catalog for the amount of books that rest there at any given time. To date I have read something like 7 parenting books cover to cover. It was just a few minutes before the session was to begin and at the last second one of my new "sisters" came up to me and said, "Are you going to the Biblical Wife session?" I told her where I was planning on going and she said, "Perhaps you should come to the "wife" one, our relationship with our husband is more important than even that of our children." Immediately I pictured all of my books and the things I'm continually seeking in regard to being a mother. Not that any of that in and of itself is wrong, but I've allowed my title of wife to take a back burner when I always promised myself that we would be husband and wife first, before anything else. It was a great eye opener and the Biblical Wife session turned out to be perfect for me.

A HUGE thank you to my mom for making this weekend possible! Matt had to work the entire time, sun up to sun down, so without her I could not have gone.

This picture is just because she's cute and now likes spaghetti.