Eastside Women's Retreat

This weekend I took a step out of my comfort zone and went to our Women's Retreat. I am soooo glad I did this. Not only did it push me out of my comfort zone but it was also overnight. If you know me, this is HUGE!!!! Outside of being in the hospital with Cameron, I have never left my kids. Sure Cooper has stayed with my in-laws but I have never left them. To be honest, Cooper stayed with them Friday night as well so Steve really only had the kids most of the day today.
Four of us met and we headed out around 5 stopping for a quick bite to eat. The retreat was held at Country Lake Christian Retreat Center in Henryville. It is beautiful. Let me say I LOVE the girls I roomed with. The four of us have been in Bible studies together at church and have always been in smaller groups together. I also live in the same neighborhood as one. Across the hall was our Early Childhood Director, a friend of hers, and a lady from our Wednesday play group. We were a little rowdy! Friday was low-key. A few worship songs, a devotional, and small teaching lesson. We had snacks and games. We headed up to our rooms around 11 and ended up in room across the hall just chatting. Before we knew it was almost 1 am! The four of us headed back to our room and had every attention of going to sleep but before I knew it was almost 3 am! I have never laughed so hard in my life. At one time I think I heard knocking on our walls. Jennifer, the Early Childhood Director from across the hall, said she could hear us. I never sleep good when I am away from home so it was better to be up having fun than tossing and turning the whole night. I was up by 6:30 the next morning, I coulnd't sleep so why not get up and get ready. These are just a couple pictures Steve texted me that evening.

Here is our group of 7. Not only did we have rooms across from one another, we sat together all weekend so we were in the same discussion groups. Beth (my fellow peeps mom), Felicia (bible study friend who is currently pregnant), Me, Jennifer's (early childhood director) head in the back, Angie (my neighbor), Sherra (bible study friend and a past co-worker), and Sherri (Jennifer's friend).
Angie and me being silly, the theme was a tired supergirl.

Saturday morning we had breakfast, more worship, teaching, devotionals, and small group time. We had an hour of free time before lunch and then back for closing. Most people would have spent that hour touring the grounds, not our group! We headed to the McDonald's in Memphis for Diet Cokes. After lunch we had one more devotional and small group before our closing group activity. I am going to do my best to describe this, it was POWERFUL!!!

There were about 60 women and we were told to make a circle of 30 chairs. We were to partner up, mine was Beth, and one would sit and the other would stand behind her. We also all wore our name tags on our back so that you could see it standing behind someone. They passed out little white cards and we were all to take one but not look at it. On the back we were to write something we were insecure about, or something negative we think or have been told about ourselves. Then we were to switch cards.. The ones standing then had to walk around the entire circle and whisper the person who was sitting's ear and say their name, you are _____ (whatever was on that card). After that was done we switched and the other person did it. It was awful!!!! I heard you are ugly, fat, not good enough, a failure. The list was just plain awful! After we both had our turns we were to turn over the card. Each one had a different scripture verse on it and a place to insert some one's name. We then each had our turn to go around and whisper that. Mine said, "when I see you, I see holiness". The concept was to show you that we all have insecurities, many of the same things were said over and over. It doesn't matter how the world sees you because God sees you differently. The last part was meant to show you how God sees you. I know this isn't the best explanation, you just have to take my word for it, POWERFUL!!! It even made me cry a little and you guys know I am not one to show my emotions. I got home around 3:00 and everyone was napping, I was still so worked up I couldn't even grab a quick nap.

I can't begin to explain how much I needed this weekend. The longest and best 22 hours I have had in a long time. I will make every attempt to attend this each year, and hopefully with the same girls. I am so thankful for Steve for taking care of the house and kids. He picked up Cooper this morning and sent me pics of their day again. I got home and the house was clean and they had even picked some roses from our bushes and put them in a vase on the table for me. So blessed!!!

I pray you guys had as good weekend as I did.