The Dallas Adventure, Part 2, Being There

It is hard to describe how wonderful last weekend was in Dallas. I've been trying to think of a way to convey how special and rich it was, and the only way I can describe it is to say that I truly believe it was a very small slice of heaven. I was only there for 22 hours (and 5 of those I was sleeping!) but I came away so spiritually refreshed and emotionally full.

This is a group of ladies that I have grown very close to over the internet through the Tapestry of Grace yahoo group. Some of them have been on-line friends (and even real life friends) for many years. My own participation in this group of women has been less than 2 years, but we have truly bonded through so many life experiences and through praying for one another. We do a cookbook each year, have secret sisters at Christmas time each year, and these things really help us to know and love one another. Some of the women in this group have become especially good on-line friends to me, emailing privately on a frequent basis and even talking on the phone.

I am so blessed to have a strong support network of real life friends and relatives, and also a "virtual" support system of homeschooling moms. Truly these are among the richest blessings in my life, and I am so grateful to God's goodness in giving them to me!

The tone of the weekend was so loving, warm, accepting, welcoming. It was like we had known and loved each other for a long time but had just never seen each other's faces. Which, in fact, is exactly true! Another thing I appreciated so much was that the focus truly was on the Lord. HIS goodness, HIS leading in our families and our homeschools, the ways He has used us in each other's lives for HIS glory. We were reminded so eloquently by Corrine that this was not about us at all. It was all about HIM.

We had such a glorious time of praise and worship on Sunday afternoon. As I listened to all the women's voices raised in praise to God, I felt bathed in God's presence and just overcome with gratitude for allowing me to be there. To be physically present in that moment was such a gift. I found myself just mouthing "thank you Lord" over and over and over.

Though the focus was most definitely on the Lord, we did have a special little something planned for our beloved leader, Dody. Dody started this yahoo group 5 years ago with about 4 other families and now there are over 1400 families represented! She has ably moderated the group since its inception, and recently God has directed her focus elsewhere and she had announced to us that she was stepping down as moderator and passing the torch to our new leader, Mel. Mel is an absolute sweetie (I just felt so drawn to her) and I know she will do a fabulous job. So Mel and the other assistant moderators hatched a plan to "bless Dody's socks off". They even created a new yahoo group for everyone in the original group EXCEPT Dody, called (appropriately) the "bless Dody's socks off yahoo group". On this yahoo group we began planning ways to bless Dody and say thank you for her years of service and sacrifice to us.

We did manage (barely!) to pull this off and it was a complete surprise to Dody. After our worship time on Sunday, we sat Dody down in the middle of the room and began blessing her. Here she is opening her first blessing, a new GPS unit for her car! She has begun a new business as a realtor in a pretty remote area, so the GPS will be extremely helpful to her!

Then we got a little more personal. Months ago we had begun sending in pieces of fabric to Laurie, who is a wonderful quilter. Laurie put her life on hold for about 2 or 3 weeks in order to make this beautiful wall hanging quilt for Dody, with scraps of fabric from dozens and dozens of women. Corrine also worked on the quilt with Laurie, and here they are presenting it to Dody. Corrine is on the left, Laurie is on the right.

She was also given two beautiful scrapbooks (which I did not get photos of), one full of personal pages from all of us (these are the pages I stayed up until 12:30 a.m. finishing the night before I left), and the other full of signature blocks made from scraps of fabric that each lady had sent in, along with the story behind why that fabric was chosen. These are beautiful, beautiful scrapbooks! I wish you could see them!

So after all the gifts had been given, Dody's socks did indeed get blessed right off!!

I was so privileged to meet so many funny, smart, humble, godly, and amazing women. Here I am with just a few of them. Oh, and when you see us with leis around our necks, these were made and given to us by our new moderator, Mel, who lives in Hawaii!

Me and Dody.

Me and Beth (the only woman I had met once before!).

Me and Karla.

Me and Laurie.

This last photo is a picture of me with my friend Marsha. I have written about Marsha before on my blog (I encourage you to read that post here.) Because of the way we have bonded and loved each other from a distance all these months, I was anticipating finally meeting her face to face with much excitement! It was a joyous moment when I could finally put my arms around her and hug her like I have wanted to do so many times. She is a very special lady, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to meet her!

God is good! I came home with fresh encouragement to keep pouring myself out for my family and friends. God gives abundantly, MORE than we need (see Luke 9:12-17 to read it for yourself!), and what I pour out on a daily basis does not have to be conjured up by me, for God gives to me so that I can give to others. Once again, it's all about God.

There is already talk of another get together, and I'd love to attend that one also. But I'm not sure I will attempt to fly standby. :-)