leighann's

Apparently it takes international travel to get me to dust the blog off these days. Just as video killed the radio star, Facebook seems to have done the same thing to Blogger. I confess to taking the quick and easy way out most of the time. But what we're up to these days deserves a little more cyberspace.

Today, Jeff and I are heading back to Hyderabad, India! It has been 20 months since our last journey, and that is far too long. I am itching to get back and be among so many people that I love and the land that God has etched into my heart. The purpose of our trip this time is to help our friends at Baptist Church Hyderabad with their annual youth conference on October 2nd. It is an event that brings over 5,000 people from all over the state of Andhra Pradesh, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate this year. This week we will be hanging out with our friends and helping in their preparations for the conference. I also anticipate sweet time with the almost 60 girls living in the orphanage on the church property. I miss their gorgeous faces!

Since our church isn't actively pursuing a partnership with BCH anymore, Jeff and I prayed about it and decided it was time to just head out on our own. We know God has put this church and city in our path for a reason, and until He shuts the door for us, we intend to do whatever we can to foster that relationship. As much as we have loved time spent with past team members, we're actually really excited about going on our own this time and the freedom that will bring. We were discussing earlier how God made us for international travel, and we are so grateful that He did and has given us the resources to pursue that passion. So the above picture is our "team" picture for Hyderabad 2010. Thanks, Dad! :)

As I write, we are waiting out a 4-hr layover at Chicago O'Hare. Due to much past experience with Chicago, we didn't want to risk the later flight out of Nashville. This city is normally my traveling nemesis, but everything has been beautiful so far today. We actually arrived a few minutes early! The air is crisp and clear and I think it's only 62 degrees out there. Quite a shock from the mid-90's we've been used to as we quickly walked through the breezeway upon exiting the plane.

This is the view from my window. Look closely and you can see the Chicago skyline in the background. It really is a spectacular day!

We are unbelievably grateful to all of you who have supported us on this journey. I need to give a big shout out to all of the caregivers taking care of the three little Swords over the next ten days, Uncle Marc and Aunt Gigi, Mimi and Poppa G, the Abbotts, Uncle Bill and Aunt Krenan, the Weimers, Meem and Granddaddy Reid. It truly takes a village to make this possible! You have all been nothing but encouraging to us as we follow God's direction, and we don't take that for granted. You are such a blessing to our lives!

Once we leave here tonight (7:30 Central time), we should be in the air for about 16 hours until we arrive in Delhi. We have a 10-hour layover there, so I'll try to update at that point. We should be arriving there around 8:00 p.m. Saturday, which is 6:30 a.m. back home.

Please keep us in your prayers. We can feel them! Love to all...

Okay, I know a couple of people out there have been wondering what's up with the blog. While it seems like summer should be a slower pace, I think the opposite is true. With all three kids home all day every day, time alone is hard to come by. I've also been working a lot more, which eats up the majority of my computer time. But I thought I'd take some time to sit down and post some pics of what we've been up to.

We have been thoroughly enjoying Lollipop League again this year. It's amazing how much growth you can see in our boys since last summer. Coach Clark is doing an awesome job actually teaching them some basics and they are really having fun with it. It's hard to believe the season is already half over!

I love the part where they congratulate each other on a good game. Just getting them to walk in lines that go in opposite directions is a huge challenge. And they can't wait to get back to the dugout to get their snack tickets!

We've kept up Bryant's playgroup this summer. He loves who he calls "his boys" so much. Here we are at the pool on our day to host. They actually stuck with it all three hours, and amazingly we pretty much had the place to ourselves. So fun!

June 14-18 was Brad and Bailey's third year at Deer Run Camp. They were thrilled that some of their very best buddies were there with them this year. It was Brad's last year to be able to participate as a camper. I just can't believe that he is that old.

My nephew, Cooper, also came down for camp this year. That's his head peeking out behind the parachute next to Bailey. :)

Can you tell the heat index was in the upper 90's that day? They had such a hot week, and I was thankful to see that they had water stations set up all around camp and that the kids were required to take drink breaks regularly.

Someone made a nice donation last year and they were able to install a really nice big top tent. This is a vast improvement over what they had before, and kept it at least a little bit cooler, although we were still all roasting in there!

This is their favorite - please enjoy the end of the Banana song. Now try to imagine me doing this with the kids in Haiti and them staring at me like I was from a different planet. Oh, yeah.

The very afternoon camp ended, we loaded up the van to meet Gigi in Chattanooga. She had invited all three kids to stay with them in Georgia for the week and we worked up the courage to part from them. :)

She texted me this picture on Saturday.

And I texted this one right back from the pool...

The kids didn't know it, but after Jeff and I drove home Friday night we packed our bags. We had an early morning flight back to Orlando. When we were there in May we talked about how much fun it would be to come back for a few days by ourselves. So when the opportunity presented itself, we decided to go for it. We knew things would not go over well if the kids knew, so we swore Gigi to secrecy until after they got home. It worked like a charm!

On Sunday, Magic Kingdom had extended hours, so that's where we went. We thought it would be really fun to ride Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at night. The park closed at 11 to anyone not staying in a WDW resort, so the lines for rides went WAY down. We actually had a really magical moment. As we were riding Splash Mountain, we came outside to round the bend right before the big drop just as the fireworks were going off directly overhead. It was incredible! It made us really glad we had ridden, even though a few seconds later we got completely, utterly drenched.

Neither one of us had ever been to Animal Kingdom, so we headed there the next day. We loved it! What a fun park. These are from the safari ride...

Besides the animals, there are incredible shows. We were blown away by "Finding Nemo, the Musical," earlier in the day. Then one of the last things we did that afternoon was go see "Festival of the Lion King." We were actually allowed to take pictures while it was going on, but I was so mesmerized by the action I only got a couple.

The chief actually came right up and stood next to where we were sitting. I think I temporarily blinded him with my flash, so it's possible that pictures are no longer allowed during the show...

We stayed at the Swan Resort, and this was the view from our balcony. The buildings in front of us are part of the Boardwalk Resort, and further out in front of that you can see the ball at Epcot. We were in a perfect location to see the fireworks at 9, and then turn to the left a little bit and see the ones at Magic Kingdom at 10. It was really neat!

I tried to get some fireworks shots, but they didn't really turn out. Trust me when I say, if you have never seen the fireworks show at Epcot, it is spectacular!

We got home last Wednesday and had a couple more days at home with no kids. On Friday morning, I left to pick up some of my best girlfriends and we were off to St. Louis! We have been planning this trip since October, when Rachel asked us if we'd like to go see Beth Moore at a Living Proof Live event. We had SO much fun! We got there a little bit later then we had hoped on Friday due to an hour long delay for interstate paving, but we still managed to sit on the fifth row.

Saturday morning we got even better seats. Notice the purple signs on the front row that say "Reserved for Platform." That is where Beth Moore was sitting. We are so cool! Yes, some of us were in line at 5:30 a.m., but it was actually pretty worth it to get to worship with one of my heroes.

The topic for the weekend was "Imago Dei." Beth taught about how we are created in the image of God, and what that should mean to us. One of my biggest takeaways was the idea that I was created in the image of God to bear the image of God. If I have no other purpose in my life but that, it is enough. And to see what that looks like, I have to look no further than the life of Christ. She also said that to live a life of purposelessness is worse than to live in pain. I found that worth chewing on for a while.

I love these girls!

On Saturday afternoon, I got to reunite with one of my dear college friends, Ericka Frank. She is amazing. Over the last fifteen years she has gone from making cookies in her kitchen and selling to friends and neighbors, to owning, not only one of the most successful bakeries in St. Louis, The Cakery, but also several cupcake/coffee shops as well. This is the Cupcakery on the West End, where she treated me to and AMAZING Italian Creme cupcake and iced coffee. I was on a serious sugar buzz in minutes, but it was totally worth it!

It was so great to catch up and laugh about old times. I am so proud of my friend. She's such a grown-up!

That evening we were so fortunate to have the opportunity to see Wicked at the Fabulous Fox Theatre. It was an incredibly ornate and beautiful theater, although it was about 450 degrees way up in the balcony where our seats were located. We laughed about the fact that we were about as far away from the stage as we had been close to Beth that morning, but it was still a wonderful evening. We got to celebrate Sandra's birthday, and I can't think of a more fun way to do that.

Sunday morning we packed up for the drive home. We stopped for one last meal together in Paducah, KY. We laughed so hard that we got some annoyed stares, but it was a perfect way to end a great road trip. We are already talking about where we can go next year. (LPL events will be posted on August 1, girls!)

When we arrived back in town, we had yet another amazing worship experience waiting for us. Our Station Hill choir was invited back up to the main campus to join the BBC choir, Good News Singers, and Michael Boggs from Kairos for "United In Worship," which was a benefit concert to raise funds for Sweet Sleep and the victims of the Nashville Flood. The price of admission was a twin sheet set or a $20 Kroger gift card.

I had expected that more folks would bring gift cards than sheets, so I was completely overwhelmed by the 340 sheet sets that were placed on the altar that evening. What an incredible sight. Having seen the sheets actually arrive in Haiti, and having had the opportunity to unpack them and put them on beds that were not there before is an experience that is burned into my heart forever, and I can't wait to have the opportunity to do it again. If you have been thinking about taking a mission trip and are wondering what you might do or where you might go, please visit the Sweet Sleep website and check out their upcoming trips to Haiti and Moldova. I promise you it will be a life-changing experience that you will want to have!

The concert is actually online if you would like to check it out. Just click here.