big news coming soon but for now a recap...

We survived the "gauntlet", as I like to refer to the last 2 weeks of conferences (3) & weddings (3).  We have one more wedding reception to attend tomorrow night and we did cut the marriage conference we planned to attend, but cut us some slack, it was a HUGE two weeks.

Let me highlight just one of the conferences & one of the weddings since I actually took photos at those two.

First I spent last week in Chicago (mostly naperville rather) at Cru's STINT briefing conference.  I always get super nostalgic attending this conference as a coach because I remember 5 years ago attending with bags packed ready to spend my first year abroad.  Everyone interning for the year with Cru overseas comes together for this one week for great teaching & worship before launching out to various locations around the world.

For me, I love thinking about learning a new culture and world even when it's not what I'm about to embark on.  The band that leads worship is also one of my favorites: http://pagecxvi.com/.  They feel like Explosions In the Sky meets hymns.  LOVED singing along with them and didn't want to leave the conference early because of that!

Another exciting part of the conference was our free day.  I spent the day with some great folks heading to East Asia TODAY in downtown Chicago.

Last year's free day in Chi-town was pretty fun but this one topped it because we ended the day going to the Mumford & Sons concert at the Chicago Theater!


It was super last minute and we snagged tickets on eBay.  The kind people at the downtown Chicago Apple store were nice enough to print them out for us & we were set.  The show was phenomenal except for some of the clientele.  To watch mumford in such an iconic theater was incredible but some of the concert-goers were rowdier than I cared for.  In the end it was worth it to hear some of their new songs & sing along to all of their first album.  Such a treat!


I flew home the next morning so that I could make the trek from Atlanta to Belle Mina, Alabama (somewhere between decatur & huntsville) for our friend from Asia's wedding.  It was such a delightful evening.  The rain held off and it was a touch cooler than August in Alabama should be.  Fireflies came out to dance at the reception underneath the magnolia trees.  What really made the night was dancing with my husband & seeing so many dear friends for probably the last time for a while.  Here are some pictures- I wish I had captured more!

after the reception- katydids!

in 2008-09 we all lived in the dorms in Asia together.  Quite the friends! 







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