Most of you know that my husband is a Youth Minister. He takes our church youth to this huge Youth Conference called SO@R (sold out and radical) every year.  Because of being pregnant or just having had a baby, it has kept me from going for at least 3 years.  But I got to go this year, and it was really awesome.

We left Vidalia Monday, headed toward Dallas.  On Tuesday, we partnered with Mission Arlington to go minister in apartment complexes in the Metro area.  We went to an apartment complex and tried to pick up all the trash we could, then in the afternoon we did a kind of 1 day VBS called Rainbow Express.  It was really neat to see our youth interacting with these children whom they had just met.  The small children got very attached to our teens in a very short amount of time.  The neatest thing, though, was watching one girl from our group as she translated for two Hispanic women who spoke very little English.  I really think some big seeds were planted that day.

The actual SO@R conference began on Wednesday. We were treated to concerts by Building 429 (which was VERY awesome!), Hawk Nelson, Tim Hawkins (HILARIOUS Christian comedian), and Solace Found.  There were also Bible lesson sessions that focused on the subject of Unity and Fellowship.  The best two sessions were the ones led by Donnie Parrish and Scott Atteberry. 

Scott gave his testimony of how God returned to him 100-fold after his wife died, and how God used His church to do that.  Scott's grief is still very fresh, and I found myself crying along with him, even though I had only met his wife once or twice.  Then Bro. Donnie announced that they were going to take an offering, and they would be establishing a Memorial Missions Scholarship fund in Jill Atteberry's memory. 

During Bro. Donnie's session, he talked about how increasing your fellowship with your church and other believers increases your fellowship with God.  He said that, when you have a problem with God's church, you end up having problems in your relationship with God.  That was something I really needed to hear.  Pray that my unity with my church family would grow!

We also got to take the kids to 6 Flags while we were in Dallas.  They had a blast, and so did we.  The other cool thing was that the conference was held at the Gaylord Texan, and that was the most amazing hotel I've ever seen!

I think my favorite part, though, was the time spent in our hotel room, where I got to truly get a glimpse into the heart of the 3 girls I shared the room with.  I got to see their heart for their friends' salvation. And I got to see their desire to live their lives for God.  After coming home, two of our youth have announced the call of God on their life for ministry and missions.  I feel so blessed to have been able to help these young people get to this conference where God spoke to them.

I just have to tell everyone what my hubby did for our anniversary, because it really took the cake!

Our 7th anniversary was Monday.  Monday was also the 1st day of afternoon Final Exam Treats at church for the youth (my husband is the youth director) and Revival at night.  I figured we'd just postpone celebration of our anniversary. 

Saturday evening we had dinner at a church member's house, along with my parents and a visiting former pastor of the church.  When we were leaving, my mother asked me to ride to church with her to listen to her practice the organ.  I thought it was odd, but I agreed to do it.  Little did I know that my husband had arranged for me to go with her so he could work on his plan for our anniversary.

On Sunday, we had Church Homecoming with dinner on the grounds, and evening services were dismissed.  There was also a Retirement party in the afternoon for my oldest daughter's preschool teacher.  As we were leaving our church to head to the Retirement party, Aaron asked me to drop him off at home to attend to business.  (I assumed he was intending to visit the john).  I gave him a little bit of a hard time about his timing.  He assured me he would meet me at the Retirement party soon.

Soon after he joined me, my middle daughter (who always begs to visit her best friend) was holding hands with her best friend and walking toward the door.  Aaron said, "Kiss her goodbye.  She's going home with her friend."  Okay, I thought, and gave her a kiss.  Next, my friend's teenage daughter walks by holding my baby girl.  Aaron said, "Kiss her goodbye.  She's going home with them too."  A little puzzled, I kissed her as well.  Then, up walks my mother who says, "Your oldest daughter is going home with me."  Starting to get a clue now, I gave her a kiss.  At this time, I was thinking maybe we'd go out for dinner or something.

We got in our vehicle and drove across the river to Natchez, and on to the Gazebo on the bluff, where we had our wedding.  We walked around and reminisced about our courtship, wedding, and our years of marriage.  It happened to be a very overcast and cool day for May with a strong wind blowing, just like our wedding day was, which certainly added to the effect.  We started talking about how Natchez really was a neat old town and would make a nice vacation spot, if we didn't live here already.  We regret not taking advantage of more of the local opportunities.  So, we decided to visit one of the antebellum homes there on the bluff, called Rosalie.  Of course, visiting these old homes always conjures up images of the romantic old South out of Gone With the Wind.

I noticed that Aaron kept looking at his pocket watch, so began to suspect something else was up.  After we left Rosalie, he drove us to the Natchez Eola hotel, the elegant 1927 hotel where we spent the 1st night of our honeymoon.  We walked around the New Orleans-style courtyard with its fountain and wrought-iron furniture.  We walked into the grand foyer, with its marble columns, grand piano, and Queen-Anne style furniture.  It is literally like stepping back in time.  Then we stepped through the brass doors into the elevator and went up to the 7th (top) floor.  I kinda had a clue by now, intensified when Aaron pulled a key out of his pocket.  We entered the room, and there were a dozen roses and a gift on the 4 Poster bed. A bag that Aaron had packed was hidden carefully behind the bed.  This was an awesome room, with a balcony overlooking the Mississippi River.  To say the least, I was quite surprised by all this.

It was a wonderful anniversary.  Aaron said the only problem was that he wasn't sure he could ever top it next year.