HT Day 2

From here on out I am going to title all posts relating to Higher Things as "HT Day X." I'll be completely honest: I'm simply too emotionally, mentally, and physically spent to come up with witty titles for each day of this long, but blessed week...If I fall into a random ounce of creativity I'll add it to the cookie-cutter title...but for now, don't expect anything "out of this world." Thanks & Gig'em!

So...Day 2 is done and over with. And, with that, so is our driving! ...For now... *sigh*

But wow...what a day!

It seriously feels like today has been TWO separate days...like, really.

I was blessed by the gentle nudging forceful shove of the Spirit to actually get out of bed when my alarm went off at circa, oh, 6am...ooooi vey! And, what a beautiful thing that was. I was so blessed to wake my sleeping beauties for the day...multiple times for some (but that's to be expected when they finally settle down for the night circa 2am...)...and then head down stairs for what was not outstanding, but a cup two cups of coffee and breakfast, nonetheless. With that I got to visit with the kiddos as the stumbled down from their rooms to find some sort of sustenance for the second day of travel. Hilarious. Precious. Priceless.

We said farewell to Little Rock around 9am...really, it was only 9am?? Felt like it was already noon or something...yikes!

We crossed the Tennessee River!

We stopped midday in Memphis.

Pyramid??

Wow. I mean, the town/city/thing is way neat, but listen to this: We stopped in at St. Jude's to visit a little boy named Tristan who is the son of a pastor friend of my dad's.

One of the complexes of the hospital.

Tristan is about 12 (I can't remember exactly how old he is) and was diagnosed with leukemia a number of years ago, I want to say he was about 6. Currently, his body is clean of the cancer, but his fragile organs are failing. Could you imagine having a child whose kidneys, liver, etc. are failing at the age of 12?! Heart-breaking, to say the very least. We weren't all able to go in and see him, since he is in ICU right now, but Dad was able to go in with Tristan's parents. While they were visiting with Tristan, the kids and I walked around St. Jude's for a bit - talk about impressive. We also got the chance to go up to the ICU doors, and we stopped and prayed for this precious boy and his family. One of the kids led the prayer, and may I just say, simple and short as it might have been, it was one of the most beautiful and heart-felt prayers you could imagine. I'm so proud of these kids.

After St. Jude's we stopped at Chic-fil-a for lunch and a visit with one of the kiddo's uncles - cool guy! He brought homemade habanero hot sauce and blackberry jam! Talk about legit.

It was pretty much a straight shot from there. All we had to do was make it to the Mississippi River...

And we finally reached out destination of Nashville!! A-WHOOP! No more long hours in the car for a few days - Glory! I have to say, though, that along the way today I saw probably good 7-8 road signs for towns in TN that stole the names of our TX towns, like, oh I dunno...this one:

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: our hotel tonight, though it's the same chain as the one we were in last night (and will be on Friday...), is WAY nice...world's above the other one. In comfort, cleanliness, and service. We like the staff lots here - not that the other ones were mean or anything...they just didn't really interact with us very much. These people rock! And the kiddos really like the pool :)

Anywho. Dinner was way fun tonight. We trekked up the hill to the Cracker Barrel **Aggies, I don't think it was the 1st one...we'll find it someday!!** So, get a load of this: we had two tables, a 5 and an 8. All the girls sat at the 5, and all the boys sat at the 8. Dad and I decided to kind of spice it up tonight, and so....he sat with our ladies and I sat with our gents. OH. MY. GOODNESS. What an experience. So, one of the boys had his ipod touch with him...complete with the game of Risk - can I get a WHOOP!? Thus, we all played a game of risk as we waited for our food - it was beyond fun. Especially because the computer version of the game is a little different than the board version of the game...since the computer does all the rolling for you, amongst other things. It was great fun, and I got to visit with one of the guys I don't know as well as the others. It was kind of like pulling teeth making conversation with him, but it was totally worth it. Hoping to get to know him a bit more as the week progresses.

We came back and had our group session shortly thereafter. Tonight was fun because we all made a tentative schedule of what breakout and in-depth sessions we all want to go to - it's going to be a cRaZy week! But so, so very nourishing. Diving into God's Word pretty much 24/7 is soooo great. I mean, I really can't wait to see what is revealed to us individually and as a group.

The lovely ladies and I had another amazing time in our "safe zone" time. Wow. What a precious and beautifully transparent time we had. I'm utterly speechless. These girls are amazing, I'm just gonna throw that out there right now. I can't wait to dig into more and more of what God tells us about living in His Word as we continue to meet up this week...I'm probably going to need to invest in a pack of tissues, though. Just sayin'.

Alrighty, loves, I'm outty.

Shalom & Blessings!
~MW


P.S. - sorry the picture quality isn't awesome...I'm just using my phone to take pictures right now...