AWOL

Our church family is sending my husband and I on a retreat this weekend. I can't remember the last time he and I went somewhere just the two of us...even for an hour, much less an entire weekend! They chose to give it to us during a church service, in which I began to cry. Not the graceful few tears and quiet sniffs that beautiful women sometimes show when overcome with emotion...no, pretty much it was the uncontrollable heaving and sobbing. Snot and tears and too few tissues. My name is certainly NOT Grace.

Much has happened over the last few months. I have been broken like never before. But the sobs did not come from that brokenness. It came from an overwhelming feeling of being picked back up and dusted off after a fall. Of others pulling us back up again and pouring out into us. The joy of a God who fills us back up after we've emptied ourselves before Him. It's humbling, as well. Part of me wants to push away and insist like a silly child that I can do it myself. Or better yet, just jump back up and hope that no one saw my face in the dirt.

I'm still slightly nervous about the logistics of leaving 6 children for 3 days, but the excitement of it all certainly overrides any concern. I am so thankful to all who made this possible...and a I'll be sure to share all about it when we return. Now, if I can somehow get everyone's bags packed, and the house in a state that I don't mind returning to.......