Passion 2015

Several months ago back in August, we planned a girls trip to Atlanta to the Passion conference. Brooke and Haleigh had not been before, but I went last year and enjoyed very much. Our church attended and took the 18-25 year olds in college and we drove along on our own as leaders. We arrived in Atlanta Friday around 4 pm to get checked into the Westin and eat before the first session. Props to Haleigh for the awesome hotel choice…would definitely go back to the Westin in downtown Atlanta for a weekend getaway with shopping. 

The weather was rainy all weekend, but we managed to stay fairly dry walking to and from Philips Arena. Walking in downtown Atlanta while 32 weeks pregnant was easier than I thought it might be, although I realized when I got home and back to work on Monday that my legs were sore. This is a picture of us walking to the first Session where we heard music by Kristian Stanfill, Chris Tomlin, Christy Knockels, and a few others. 

Saturday morning we were up early to eat a quick breakfast at Chic-Fil-A in the CNN center and off to Session 2. Thanks to Will & Jamey our group got awesome seats. We heard sermons from John Piper and Carl Lentz. I was very familiar with John Piper but new to Carl Lentz. He is the pastor of Hillsong Church in NYC. Although his more radial approach differed from John Piper's theological style of teaching, both were enjoyable. However, the pregnancy fatigue overtook me for the latter half of John Piper's sermon and I did get quite a few laughs from my friends. Sorry about it guys. The best part of the day was hearing David Crowder….seriously his album "Neon Steeple" is good from start to finish! 

Finally we got a picture with Claire! By this point it was 7 or 8 pm we were all pretty tired. We heard an amazing message by Francis Chan that I'm pretty sure left us all thinking hard the rest of the week. This was my second time hearing Francis and I have to say he is one of my favorite speakers. 

Love this guy! Such a spiritually refreshing weekend. 

And the best part of coming home Sunday was this! The second coat of paint got put on the nursery walls, the carpet got shampooed, and Caroline's furniture was assembled! Obviously I haven't rushed on the nursery project. At first I wasn't going to share this picture, but I think it will be neat to see how it turns out. After taking this picture we have re-arranged the furniture, got her bedding and curtains, and other pieces to the nursery (rug, bookshelf) are coming this week. I have things ordered/planned to buy that should all fall in place in the next 2 weeks. Lets just hope she stays in a little longer so I can get done. If she doesn't, I'm not really worried about it though because I do realize that we won't sleep in here starting out anyways. :)

I kept seeing these button canvas projects on Pinterest, so when Kyle was working on Sunday I decided to give it a go. It turned out better that I thought it would! Can't wait for "C" to get here!