I've allowed the blog to be taken over by the Uganda trip. . .mostly because I think we'd all agree that their posts are WAY more interesting!!! To read more, make sure you've checked out the following awesome people's blogs: Sam, Vince, or Amy. We've reposted each other a few times so you will see duplicates.
As you may remember. . .I've been having my own wild adventure. . .I'm calling it "Freaking Idiot or Mad Genius, You Decide?" :-)
Since I last posted, I've been to Mississippi, Texas and Colorado and am now in Arkansas. Yep, by myself with 3 kids. I'm pretty much certifiable.
Actually. . .it's gone GREAT. As good as can be expected, I should say. The first week went AMAZING. The last 2 days. . .well, let's just say I think I'm ready to be home. . .and WAY ready for my children to have a father.
Each leg of my trip needs to be its own post. . my time in Dallas with the RLC crew was a BLAST! Those girls know how to party! It was refreshing and relaxing to be in a place with people who connect at such a deep level. We just laughed and laughed and were thankful to have conversations that were longer than 140 characters! (most of our convos happen over Twitter currently!) I have TONS of pics. . so I'll post them at a later time.
After that was my trip to Colorado
Springs. . once again. It ended up being such a great week. Sara Giordano (Vince's wife) took me in for the week. I gotta tell you. . .Vince's life doesn't suck! haha I hung out with his wife and kids and worked at his desk all week. . .considered borrowing his car and using his toothbrush but decided against it :-) My kids had a BLAST. Their kids are older and were SO sweet to my little ones. The weather was great, the company was easy and relaxing and the times were fun.. .the only thing missing was homemade food (hehe, Sara!) It was a nice week to get to hang out with the HopeChest wives and kids. I also spent a few days in the office, thanks to Sara watching my kiddos. It was a great week and Sara put up nicely with me even when I was in a foul mood. I struggled quite a bit on Wed. - Friday with the team getting to Uganda. I knew I'd be jealous. . because as anyone who knows me would attest to, I HATE missing out on a good time. . .but I struggled WAY more than I expected. I think it was the combination of the team being IN Uganda visiting "my" kids (Rapha) and it being a team of my friends and me having done a lot of the work to plan the trip. . .man, I just struggled. I spent most of Thursday in tears everytime someone mentioned the trip. Ridiculous, isn't it? Thankfully, Sara and Nicole especially helped me through it. Thanks girls.
Sweet, sweet Luke. I adore this kid. When I left, I gave him a huge hug. His response, "Man, I knew I'd been missing something all day. . .it was a hug from you"
The kids and I have decided we LOVE Soccer Saturdays! It was nice and cool there. . .so we bundled up in the Giordano's clothes (thanks Hannah for letting me wear your clothes and Abby and Luke for clothing my kiddos!)
My kids ADORE Ms. Sara! 
Davis and I being silly. . .Hannah really liked my camera. . so she is the one who took all of these pictures. . and the reason that she's not in any of them!
After that. . was the 12 hour drive to Arkansas to see some of my favorite people in the world, Jon and Renae Piper!! I'm here now and it's so nice to be with people I love so dearly. We are staying up playing games like old times. My kids are not so good right now. . but hopefully they'll do better the next few days.
The kids wrestling with Johnny. . they've missed some serious GUY TIME!
My sweet Renae. . otherwise known as Nae-Nae
I leave tomorrow at noon for a 12 hour drive to Atlanta. Thursday and Friday morning are spent with friends and family there and I head for home on Friday afternoon. I decided that I NEEDED to be home for a little friends b-day party so I'm booking it home a day early.
Thanks for your prayers. . I've felt them. The kids have done GREAT on the driving days. And, turns out I've needed them too! I could stand them for the next few days too. . .I am starting to feel worn down and am just tired of parenting alone on the road. I think not being alone for a long time straight is affecting me too. . I kinda feel in a funk. Pray that my time in the car tomorrow will be used well. I think I just need to spend some serious time with Jesus!
