I am my mother's daughter

Wow, what a rush of a weekend!  It started on Thursday night.  I picked up a lady that I didn't know, but is the mother-in-law of a friend from church.  Then headed to Des Moines.  The Central Iowa churches of my synod were hosting the annual LWMS (Lutheran Women's Missionary Society) convention for WELS Lutheran women from all over the world.

Thursday night was the opening church service with a parade of world flags.  I cried a lot.

My parents were very mission minded and had been to Africa 21 times.  Well, my dad had.  Mom went with him many times, as well as some of my siblings.  I never did.

On Friday, I picked up Judy again as well as another lady from our church.  It was a busy day but our evening was free, so before we left town, we hit the Zombie Burger restaurant.  YUM!!!!

Des Moines has two of these restaurants and they originated here.  We got ours to-go and dribbled food down our shirts for the drive home.

Saturday was a big day.  I picked them both up and headed to Des Moines again.  We had to be there by 8am for the opening devotion and then the various speaker events all day with a great lunch!

I hadn't been able to help our circuit out before that weekend, with all the craziness in my life lately.  So I got signed up to help out where I could as a volunteer.  Once at the courtesy table and introduced a few speakers.

The final speaker that someone that I've known for years and my kids were friends with her kids.  She and her husband recently moved overseas to a country not friendly to Christians.  And the culture shock of how life is there compared to here was the focus of her speech.  

It was very inspiring!

Before I introduced her, I got reacquainted with her girls and grand-daughter.  The grand-daughter must have recognized that I was a grandmother as well and wouldn't let go of my finger.  She even went up on stage with me for a little bit!  What a sweetie!  I wouldn't be able to go overseas for a year at time from a grand-baby, but who knows!  The situation has never presented itself...

When Meri was really little, she was so enamored with the girl on the left that she made a password for use at home.  You couldn't go in the living room until you recited the passcode.

"Someone has a cat, ##### has a cat."

And she DID have a cat!  That phrase was used a lot in our house and Robb even made a variation of a shorter version of it for a password for a LONG time... 

Maddy had told me of a few women that were attending from her church.  She gave me last names but with 1500 attendees, what were the odds of us finding each other?!

In our synod, apparently better than slim!  I had lunch with someone that KNEW one of the three!!

So at the banquet that night, the husband saw one of the women and brought her over to me.

"He said that you wanted to talk to me?..."  When she found out who I was, she hugged me fiercely and dragged me over to the other two women.  We got a pic to prove to Maddy that I'd met them.  I was thereafter known to them as "the mother of Maddy".  I'll take it!

The food was great!  and the company even better.

After the banquet, we went back up to the ballroom and there were lots of skits and fun stuff.  Even a Christian rock band!  Wow...  Most of the women were probably more used to sitting in a rocker than clapping hands along with one, but it was still fun.

 We had to duck out around 9 in order to get home at a decent time, so we left after only a couple songs.

I was the only one of us able to attend the final church service on Sunday morning, where I was signed up to be an usher.

The ballroom was packed with people and of course I cried again.  Got myself mopped up enough to get my usher duties done.  I'm sure people were thinking, "Who is that weepy woman in the back!?"  Or they weren't.  I don't know.  It doesn't matter.

During one portion of the event, I was walking through a big conference room with lots of displays set up from mission work fields all over.  I happened past a table that had some photo albums and glanced down.  *GASP*  that's Maddy's Father-in-law!!!  

So I took a pic and sent it to her.

Another display was giving out candy, another pens, or pencils or various other items with the name of the group on it.  It was better than the homeshow!!!

But I still didn't find a yard stick.  sigh...

Oh well!

 I got home to a family who missed me!!!  Meri had been texting me all weekend, "Hey - where are you?! ..."   "oh yeah..."  Maddy was responding to pics that I took, most of the time.  Found out later that she was out camping.  Fun!  

So it was a great weekend and I'm glad to be home.  Hopefully I can get out to mow before the rains start today.  Probably won't get to...  And that's ok too.  I wouldn't mind spending my lunch hour sewing for the State fair!  I don't have much to show yet...  and my entry tickets haven't arrived yet either.  So who knows if I'll even have entries!