How do I even begin to describe this? It was indescribable.
Looking back at the days leading up to it, I know that I wasn't anticipating anything like what I actually experienced. God's hand of blessing was on everything from the road trip, to the seminars, to the sweet hours spent in prayer, to the time given to sharing scripture and thoughts.
The message was a powerful one - deeply convicting, but wonderfully encouraging. I wish I could lay out every detail of what they shared with us, but it wouldn't fit on one blog. In the most compact way that I can put it, they zeroed in on living a life totally and completely abandoned to Christ; everything (yes everything) surrendered, and nothing "taken into our own hands." They took all the things they knew that any girl (if she's human) struggles with, "nailed it on the head", and encouraged us to wrestle in prayer over the things that stood in the way of a "poured out" life. There is so much more detail I could go into, and I would love to tell more, but that will have to wait for later when I can be with you in person and can be even more specific.
What a gift it was to grow closer together and closer to Christ with these 13 women I drove with to CO.
May the Lord receive all the glory for this wonderful week and may we, as his daughters, shine with a heavenly beauty that flows out from within us making it clear that "I am His, and He is mine!" And may we be selfless. And may the world look on and say, "that girl is set apart." Amen and amen.
"Rise and shine! It's 4:45 am and it's time to get on the road!"
"Rise and shine! It's 4:45 am and it's time to get on the road!"
First stop - the keys are locked in the car.....we lasso the lock with an ear-bud and pry the door open. Only 15 min. lost - not bad :-) Good work, gals.
*click*
what a car full (hi Gabi ;-p)
a sign above us: "no overnight parking. Violators will be towed"Too late :-p
Our wonderful chaperons (thank you, thank you!)
I couldn't help but take this shot. She was so beautiful.
You can't have a group of girls and a camera and NOT have this traditional shot, so here ya go
making our way to the dorms
Nicole
I really could go on and on about Annie. She was the coordinator for the conference and she shown with the light of Christ. What an amazing women. And so patient and sweet! She had gobs of girls flocking to her, and she spoke to each one as if she was a close friend and made a point of encouraging each of us personally.
Oh, and Krissy, too. Krissy is Eric Ludy's sister and she spoke on the blessing of singleness. Everything she had to say was so encouraging and up-building.
our nosey squirrel friend, fondly known as Hezekiah Zeke...
...he was after our spoiled sweet potatoes. He can have 'em, if you ask me. *nasty* A childhood phrase of mine sums this one up : "Num bluckly bluckly lah" :-)
Ah, Chipotle... 
Friendship is such a sweet thing in life. I rather like it :-)
I loved getting to know Katherine. She flew from Texas to be with Sally for a while and then drove to the conference with us.
Our wonderful chaperons (thank you, thank you!)
I couldn't help but take this shot. She was so beautiful.
You can't have a group of girls and a camera and NOT have this traditional shot, so here ya go
making our way to the dorms
Nicole
I really could go on and on about Annie. She was the coordinator for the conference and she shown with the light of Christ. What an amazing women. And so patient and sweet! She had gobs of girls flocking to her, and she spoke to each one as if she was a close friend and made a point of encouraging each of us personally.
Oh, and Krissy, too. Krissy is Eric Ludy's sister and she spoke on the blessing of singleness. Everything she had to say was so encouraging and up-building.
our nosey squirrel friend, fondly known as Hezekiah Zeke...
...he was after our spoiled sweet potatoes. He can have 'em, if you ask me. *nasty* A childhood phrase of mine sums this one up : "Num bluckly bluckly lah" :-)
Ah, Chipotle... "you want that to go? Ok. I'll go get the dolly. " ~Tim Hawkins
Great food....great quantities :-p
Friendship is such a sweet thing in life. I rather like it :-)
I loved getting to know Katherine. She flew from Texas to be with Sally for a while and then drove to the conference with us. Missin' you, girl!
you could almost fancy that God had his own camera out when I took this...(check out the upper left hand corner :-p)
the lucky charm presentation :-)
breakfast! num num
A sweet "welcome home" that the younger Werzinskis gave us
you could almost fancy that God had his own camera out when I took this...(check out the upper left hand corner :-p)
the lucky charm presentation :-)
breakfast! num num
A sweet "welcome home" that the younger Werzinskis gave us
And who showed up? Our favorite kindergarten teacher! :-) Mrs. Tapley (from Fresno Christian). Seeing her "little Jenny" and Kaylee Kangaroo after all these years - and Jenny's baby??!!!! Oh my goodness - time passes!
We had a fun weekend of graduation and various parties. Sunday evening our church family gathered at the Archers for an evening of blessing our seniors (about 9 of them, I think). Bus got us all weepy (and of course laughing, too!) as he talked about Ashley. 
Kaylee and some cousins... and Uncle Andy and Aunt Susan
I don't think this was the Joel/Grandpa game!
Tim and mom :-)
Other happenings in the month of May: 
A fun evening at the Bohans - with the Reilly family, too.
The Myers gave us a call on Mothers' Day and told us to come on over. What a fun day!
Complete with lots of music
And coming back to the past couple of days: Grandma and Grandpa McC. stayed on for a week after our vacation time in order to be here for Kaylee's graduation. Grandpa helped Connor get his small garden into spiffy shape. Now we just need to keep Molly out of it. (And speaking of Molly, she learned all kinds of tricks, thanks to Grandpa's confidence that she was smart and could learn some fun stuff!)
