Birth Control Challenged

Yep, I guess so!!!! After 9 short days in Belgium, I am back to the harsh reality of life here in Texas. And although I really wanted to be with my kids, I honestly was not ready to come home. I LOVED Belgium!!! It was freezing and even snowed while we were there, but I loved it still. It felt like home. It could have something to do with the fact that I knew so many people over there and that Jon's family is the most hospitable family in the world. Words can not even come close to describing my experience in Belgium. God did some powerful things. I am still processing everything that took place there, so I think I will wait to write a detailed blog on the spiritual aspect of our trip till later.

We didn't have Internet access very much on our trip so I didn't get to write blogs while we were there. However, the first night we arrived in Belgium, I wrote a blog about my "so far" experience and was hoping I could post it but didn't get to. So here it is:


Belgium Day #1

Wow!!! I can’t believe that we are actually here! It’s completely what I thought it would be. Beautiful. Cold. Rainy. Quaint. Historical. Totally Amazing!

We arrived at 10:30am on Friday October 24th (my birthday!!!) Our flight was long and tiring but ultimately, uneventful. Which is good! We had a non-stop flight from DFW to Amsterdam. From there we had about an hour and a half lay over, then it was a 25 min flight to Brussels, Belgium. When we arrived I thought Jon was about to come out of his skin he was so excited! He just kept saying, “I get to see my brothers and mom and dad” with a big smile on his face. He practically ran off the airplane. It was so cute! However, when we came out of the gate, no one was there to meet us. We looked and looked, but no one. Finally after about 20 min of waiting, we find out that Jon’s mom told Tim (Jon’s little brother) to pick us up at 8:00am instead of 11:00. He had been waiting in the car, sleeping, the whole time. Poor Tim L Once our luggage was loaded in the van it was off to Christophe’s house for some lunch and R&R. Even though I have never been to Belgium before, it was comforting to know familiar faces. I know almost all of Jon’s family so it felt like a reunion of sorts for us.

Chris lives in a beautiful home. Ramonda fixed us a WONDERFUL lunch, rice, chicken and broccoli mixture and fruit salad. It felt so nice to have a warm home cooked meal to start the trip off right. Then the sweetest thing, Jon went out and bought me a little birthday cake. It was precious and I adored it. I can’t believe he was so thoughtful! It made my birthday special because he actually thought ahead about something. Destiny you would have been proud (you probably told him to do that ) Lol!!!!

After Liz and I did the dishes for Ramonda, we loaded up in the van for our long journey to the middle of no where. This is where the youth conference (can’t pronounce the name so I wont even try) will be held. It’s in this huge prison like place. Seriously I feel like we should be in an episode of Prison Break. It’s sorta creepy but not, at the same time. Currently I am typing this as I sit in this rickety bed wearing about 2 layers of clothes to sleep in because it’s so cold that I can almost see my breath. Oh Lord help me! The drive was humorous! Jon drove us in this OLD van that didn’t have power steering and was a standard to top it all off. Jon drove like a maniac but he did better than I would have done for sure. All of us were jet lagging BAD too! We all kept head bobbing on and off the whole time. We all caught each other, more than once, with our mouths open, head back and totally asleep. It cracked me up. Liz and I got to laughing so hard about something but we wont say what that was (wink, wink Liz). Once we got there we had to wait for everyone else to get there before we knew where to take our luggage and such. By this time it was about 6pm and we were starving. For dinner, we walked to get some French Fries, of course, then came back to make preparations for the youth conference. There will be about 350 youth attending this conference. It should be awesome! I actually have no idea what to expect but I’m sure it will be great!

After taking a Hot shower (thank you Jesus), it’s off to bed for another day of Belgium! Woo Hoo! I miss my sister, kids, family and friends though. I hope they are doing ok. Well I better get some sleep. Love to all.

I'll post an extensive picture blog later!