Keith and I have been attending our new church.  We have really been enjoying it.

The church has a women’s retreat that happens to be this very weekend.  We left this morning around 9:30am and finally arrived in Tennessee around 5:45pm.  I drove one of the other women’s Suburban.  Man, that was truly a long drive and my derrière was so incredibly happy once we finally got here (I think it may have even been secretly dancing).

I went upstairs and found my room.  This cabin is really nice and it will be nice to get to know some of the other women in the church.

On the beds in our room was our name badge that we are to wear around our neck for the weekend, a bag of different goodies like tissues, and a book that we will be using for the weekend.  There was an itinerary on top of the book that we will be following for the weekend.  At the top it said to go to the story on page 29.  So I did.  I was pre-warned by other ladies that it would be a tear jerker.  I said it can’t be much worse than the loss of losing Mari.  Well, I was right in that it could not be worse.  However, I was wrong in that the story was similar to mine in that the woman who wrote it had too lost a child.  Her baby to be precise who was only two and half hours old when she passed.  I knew exactly what this mom had felt as she was holding her new little baby and she passed away in her arms.  I had been there.  My heart ached for both her and Mari.  It did bring me to tears.  What a way to start a weekend.  Well, I know God has me here for a reason and I am sure it will be shown to me as the weekend progresses.

It feels good to be here and I will try to keep everyone updated as to how it goes.

Mari, know I love you oh so much and miss you every single day.  Love, Mommy