Busy as a bee...

Whew! We are busy as little bees lately. We have a new refugee from Burma arriving today, a family from Iraq tomorrow, and another Burmese individual on Thursday. Unfortunately, the Columbia airport will not have any incoming flights until mid-August most likely (due to a change in the routes offered...some FAA regulation that doesn't make much sense to me), and we will be traveling to either the St. Louis or Kansas City airports to greet the new arrivals.

On Saturday, my fabulous mother arrived in St. Louis and we wasted no time having a grand time together! We went shopping, stopped at her favorite place Sonic and finally got back into Columbia. She lovingly took Isaac and me to see Wall-E. Oh my heavens, I LOVE that movie! Anything Pixar has created has simply been just wonderful. And seriously, I almost peed in my pants from laughing so hard during the now-expected short before the feature presentation. Hi-stinkin'-larious. Anyway, Mom created a Mii on the Wii, and it is the greatest thing to watch her play MarioKart, especially when she gets all turned around and starts laughing and yelling, "Dude, Toad, what are you doing?!?! Turn around!" She's cool, what can I say?

On Saturday (count it: four days), Liz will become Mrs. Brookhart! We are finishing up some preparations (bubbles and programs) this evening while we have a total girls night while our boys are at Bible Study, and Mom is working on finishing her veil for her. Liz liked my veil so much that when she and Jake got engaged, she asked my mom to make her veil for her wedding. Say it with me now: "Awwwwwww..."

After the celebration of the Brookharts on Saturday, the RIS staff will be heading to Washington, D.C. for our annual conference. The stinker is that our flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning from St. Louis, and with Alice and myself arranging arrival times...well, we like to be early for everything. Since I live the farthest west of the Columbia crew, I'll be taking the van home on Friday, picking up Senad at his house at 2:15 Monday morning, getting Dan by 2:30, Michelle by 2:45, and Martha by 2:55 in order to leave Columbia by 3:00 am. I don't care who you are, that's early.

And after we get back late Thursday...well, life just keeps chugging along. But I love it. Even though life can be overwhelming at times (read: September), I still enjoy it. I love my job, I love that so many of my friends are getting married, I love that I get to spend time with my girls every Tuesday night, I love that we all get together to scrapbook and be crafty, I love holding Zach at the softball games, I love reading with my husband, I love laughing with my mom (even when we're not in the same state), and so many other things about the life He has given me. I feel so blessed.

And oh yes, Happy Anniversary to two of my favorite people, James and Clemma. May the Lord bless you greatly today!