MOPS Convention

I left home for FOUR days in September!!! I hadn't ever left all three kids and Daryl hadn't had all the kids like that before. The church offered to pay for the steering team for MOPS to go to the convention in Nashville, TN. Wow!! We figured in order to save money, we would drive the 14 hours there. 8 of us went: 6 drove in the church's van and 2 flew. I was quite leery of leaving at 3 in the morning - since I am SOOO not a morning person. Well, this was the most fun I have had as a person - me, Angela - not as a mom, not as a wife - just ME in as long as I can remember!!! Probably since Daryl was gone on deployments!! I had a blast!!! The 14 hour drive was the BEST part. Being with 6 wonderful girls trapped in a car with nothing to do but talk for 14 hours!! That is what every mother of preschooler DREAMS of! :)
We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. I have always wanted to stay at one and I got to stay there for free!! Five years ago, while we were in Fort Worth, Daryl promised me we could stay at the Gaylord Texan if he got promoted. Well, he got promoted but we moved so quickly after that that we couldn't fit it in. I finally got to do it!!! And it is an amazing place! Huge, plush, very nice service, excellent food - but a cup of coffee was $3.22 - BLACK!!! They accommodated our 4000 people seemingly effortlessly They are used to that types of crowds.
The convention itself was awesome!!!! MOPS International did a wonderful job! The speakers were Godfilled and spoke like they were talking only to me. The worship was AWESOME!! Matt Redman, Plumb, Christy Nockles (of Watermark), Natalie Grant and Matthew West. Couldn't believe it. We had great breakout groups. I went to a session on telling God's story in you, Creative Concoctions - cheap homemade activities and crafts for kids, being a discussion group leader, being a Green Mama . . . I guess that was it. I loved it. It was talking to me as a Christian. Not solely focused on me as a preschooler's mother. How I can reach others for Christ - right here where I am.
I love the girls I was with. I have been here only a year but I feel like these girls are my soul mates. I haven't felt that way in a LONG time!!! So excited to be serving my Lord with these ladies!!! Watch out world!!! MOPS at NSBC is out to change the world - NO mom left behind!! :)
Oh, D and the kids did GREAT!!! Didn't act like they missed me at all! :) SO can I do it again next year???? :)