My words seem unworthy when it comes to documenting our FamilyLife Weekend To Remember Marriage Conference. It was sheer excellence. The speakers were amazing. The hotel and experience were amazing. The knowledge we gained from going and learning about how to have a purpose in your marriage and not just let it happen... was priceless. I am convinced that every single married couple no matter what their status is, has got to go to one of these conferences. It literally gives insight from scripture that has the power to save a marriage in a weekend. Newly-weds were there. Couples with a great marriage, but just wanted some direction were there. Couples that were on the brink of divorce were there as a last hope that it might save their marriage. One of the projects during the conference was to spread out throughout the hotel and get alone with your spouse. We then prayed together and began to answer some questions in the project booklet and write them in the form of a love letter to each other. It was amazing. I felt like I was back in 2006 in our dating relationship. At the end of the conference they had an opportunity for any of the couples to participate in renewing their wedding vows. I, being the sap that I am, was tearing through the entire vows ceremony imagining a long white train puddled behind me on the floor, and my man in a tux.
Everyone in attendance got these workbooks to fill in the blank and take notes throughout the session. The workbooks and the conference was the most organized event I have ever been to. Like I said, "sheer excellence."
The speakers during the conference were Doug and Susan Grimes, and Brett Ray. They were all fantastic.
I am in awe of and so thankful for the ministry of FamilyLife. So much so that we would love to work for them - someday. The FamilyLife Mission is: to effectively develop godly marriages and family who change the world one home at a time. At the end of the first evening session, the speaker got up and announced that there would be prayer request boxes all throughout the ballroom during the course of the weekend in case anyone had a specific prayer request for their marriage that they would like prayer for. FamilyLife had a team of prayer warriors, that prayed during each session, during the entire weekend for the couples that were there. At he announced that at one point the team prayed through the entire list of guests that were there and prayed for them by name.
I love listening to FamilyLife's daily broadcasts... one of the voices of FamilyLife is Bob Lepine. I'm telling you, his voice is the most soothing thing I have ever heard of in my life. At the conference they must have had him pre-record something along the lines of "Folks, the conference will resume in about three minutes, please begin making your way back to your seats." And they played it before each session. I flipped out thinking Bob Lepine was there in person. It was like a celebrity moment, I whipped my head around scanning the entire ballroom trying to find the voice behind that mic. BrettRyan got a huge kick out of telling me that in fact Bob Lepine was not there, and that it was a recording. Daggone. That was pretty much the only disappointment of the weekend.
These were some of my favorite quotes during the conference. Some were from video clips and some were from the workbook, and some were from the speakers:
"One of the greatest gifts we can give the next generation is one of faithfulness and fidelity in a marriage."
"You are ancestors to someone yet to come!"
"Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast." - Marlene Dietrich
The first blissful moment for me - when I realized I was there on a date, and that I had no diaper bags in tow, was when we pulled up to valet park, and the Bell Hop dude garbed in his navy blue hat and cape, opened my door and greeted me with a "Good Evening Miss. Welcome to the Amway Grand. What brings you to the Amway this evening?"
Here are some pictures of the hotel and our weekend together...
I am in. love, with these lights.
My love and I
Not sure what it is about crisp, clean, stark white sheets that say "vacation", but they get me every time.
Baby bump at 13 weeks...
One of the great things about the conference is that they set aside Saturday evening for you to have a date night. We had a relaxing evening together and ate at Maggiamo's, a local italian restaurant. LOVE enjoying my cucumber water whenever we go to a Gilmore Collection restaurant.
I thouroughly enjoyed two days to be together with my man - alone. Alone so that we could do things like hold hands, talk, and focus on each other. I missed my little man, but in all honesty it was nice to not cart fifty diaper bags around, triple checking for a paci every ten minutes, and frantically handing out Cherrios with the knowledge a tired meltdown was right around the corner. But, I couldn't wait to see my little man again and hold him tight. Upon our arrival, unfortunately we weren't greeted with a cheerful acknowledgement scream recognizing mommy and daddy ending in a hug, but we were greeted with tired, glassy eyes, and a Grammy that said, I'm pretty sure he has an ear infection. Not fun for little punkin. So we took him to Urgent Care... two hours of waiting in a germ infected open air waiting room, trying to entertain a thirteen month old with a few dinky diaper bag toys, and trying to keep him off the icky floor equals not much fun. At one point BrettRyan offered to run home to get the computer and a PraiseBaby DVD to keep him still and occupied, at that suggestion I wanted to cry and beg like a baby Please! No! Don't leave me here to do this by myself! Finally, at the third hour we were called back to see the doctor, but only to wait another hour before we would go home with prescription in hand. Sure enough, Grammy was right. So little boy has been miserable since Sunday morning. Plugged up and runny nose, horrible cough, and aching ears. Now we have an antibiotic which will help him get better, but is also giving him the "squirts" (which diapers do NOT hold, might I add) and a horrible diaper rash in the mean time. POOR BABY. I can't even tell you how much soaking of laundry, changing of beds, and diaper ointment we've applied. But just thankful he's slowly getting his spunk back.
THIS is how desperate you get in a urgent care room waiting for two hours to see the doctor with a thirteen month old. Good job Daddy. Kinda looks like Daddy too! ;)
In efforts to keep Breck near the warm air humidifier, Breck and I had a picnic by the humidifier in his room. It twas fun.
Found this in my soup...
And we've been keeping busy reading books, cuddling, and watching more PraiseBaby than I'd care to admit, but hey - you gotta do what ya gotta do when your baby is sick. Even in the sick moments at our home, I love trying to be creative and think of every possible way I can try to make his little sick body more comfortable.
And thank goodness for Bearpo!
On a side note, and for the record, I never stock things like Cheetos in our pantry, because no one lives here that possesses self discipline, but last week I broke down and bought a bag. I had a Cheeto in front of Breck and he cracked up at the "crunch" of it in my mouth. So I went along with it and exaggerated a bit, and wha-lah... we have this following video. He got a kick out of it for sure. And for the record again, I don't normally feed my child Cheetos either, but there is a first for everything, eh?
(*Be sure to turn off my playlist on the right sidebar of the blog so that you can hear Breck's laugh!)
Ps. The second disappointing thing for me this past weekend/week, was that Breck apparently has fallen deeply in love with his bottle, and wants nothing - I repeat, nothing, to do with nursing anymore. I'm thinking it's a blend of him being a little sick before we left, us being gone, him getting the ear infection, and this little dose of independance he's gotten with walking on his own. I'll admit I'm a little saddened by his decision, but I do see six months of pretty bras in my future, before I begin nursing another sweet baby... and to that I'm also looking forward to.
-A
