Ah-Maz-ing!!!!

After a crazy and stressful week in our household last week, this weekend has simply been amazing. 

When downloading pictures off of my phone I found this sweet picture from last week.  One of my dear friends spontaneously invited several mommies over for lunch on a rainy day last week.  The kids ate lunch and then played and the Moms ate pie and sipped coffee on her comfy couches.  It was spontaneous and heavenly.  Thank you Kelly for your hospitality!  I joked that my bottom was not leaving her couch all day!!  I treasure these precious years before my last baby heads off to big school in two short years.  Spontaneous lunches and playdates are precious treasures now. 

Here is David, and the two Meghan's at clinic.  David took Ms. Meghan's blood pressure since he was such a great patient.  He is also rocking his Stand Up to Cancer Spiderman shirt from Kilby!!  We do not like going back to UVA, but the staff there is simply amazing. 

Saturday was the Ordinary Women's Conference here in Marion.  Before I talk about that amazing experience here are my two youngest Hokie fans!  Because of the Archer family they were blessed and were able to go to the game with GG and Pops!!  What a wonderful day of beautiful weather, a Hokie win (woot woot) and a special day with grandparents.  Thank you for such a special treat for our hokies!

You can see from the empty seats around them that they got to the game super early!  My parents said that David watched every play, cheered every cheer and refused to leave until everyone was off the field!  He fell asleep in the parking lot:)  He came home saying "hokies won" and he had a great day.

Mike and Kyle were at a swim meet.  Kyle swam well this weekend. 

It is hard to get a good picture in a dark pool, but here is our sweet swimmer boy!

Today we took the whole family to cheer on the kiddos and David had fun with Bridget and Bre. 

Kyle swam well except for his 50 backstroke and he got disqualified for getting tangled up in the lane line and flipping too early.  It was a great character builder for him because he wanted to go home and not swim his last event.  After a talk with his Dad he came out and rocked his last event and held onto first place by tying with another swimmer. 

Sweet boy and his trophy!

 

 

Yesterday I was at the Ordinary Women's Conference.  I was really nervous and really wanted to throw up before the event.  All the speakers were in a backroom before the event started and I got really emotional and could NOT turn off my tears.  Then several ladies prayed and that awesome peace from God washed over me. 

 

 The amazing organizer, Sheila Miller did an awesome job emceeing the event and she reminded us of all the "ordinary" women in the bible that God called to do extraordinary things.  Women such as Esther and Mary who were orphaned or a peasant girl and that God used them to do amazing things.  I pray that God can use our nightmare and this very ordinary and often unglued woman to bring glory to Him. 

 

The conference was awesome!  Local ladies you must attend this event next year.  The fellowship was wonderful, the speakers were inspiring, the music was glorious, the food was wonderful, and the presence of God was palpable in that church.  I felt honored to be a part of this and I pray that my speech touched a heart.  I had typed out pages and pages to go by but after 5-10 minutes in I bagged my hand written notes and just talked.  I told story after story how God held our hand and wiped our tears the last year.  I ended by encouraging the women to invest time in their relationship with God.  That investment will always be compounded and you never know when you might need to call on his mercy and grace. 

 

 

This weekend has simply been awesome.  After a very emotional, stressful, and frustrating week about David's kidney and Mike's work,  this weekend was refreshing and wonderful.  Friday night my little ones were at GG and Pops' gearing up for the big VT game, Kyle and Mike were at high school football games, so I snuck over to my dear friend Misty's house. I had dinner with her and her family and then we got our craft on.  I cannot post our final results because what we made are Christmas gifts, but we had a great time being girly and crafty.  It was such fun and now the craft bug has bitten us both:) 

 

I am so thankful that when life feels at its breaking point God refreshes us with exactly what we need.  Have a great week!