Praise Report: Family Life, Army Keynote and Blessings Galore!

There are big weeks and then there are BIG weeks. This is one of those BIGGGGGGGGG weeks!

So much gratitude. So much appreciation. So much delight. Mixed together in the midst of real-life heart-wrenching challenge.....  makes Friday's triumphant zenith all the more spectacularly other-worldly, mind-numbingly out-of-body-like as I sit here and attempt to begin to type.

"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." Name that classic novel's opening lines. My reading of a "Tale of Two Cities" in sixth grade hardly prepared me for this week, but the foreshadowing was indeed there.  

We left our summer hideaway hiatus heaven-on-Earth early Monday well before dawn and waved goodbye to Eagle Harbor under a glowing moonscape in shrouded mist. Cue surreal setting for departure. Could it possibly be true that an entire summer had transpired? {Something about unexpectedly selling your home and relocating creates an unusual season to be sure.} 

Our final motorcycle ride the afternoon before yielded my favorite annual find: locating the first tree on the peninsula to go full blown "color."

I absolutely marvel that while 99.9% of the entire Door is decked in full-on green, there is every year a single tree that goes renegade and mutates before the pack. Early adopter. Gifted and talented. Obstinate. 

Like walking into your favorite department store in flip flops to be slammed with an entire wall of Jolly Saint Nicks, months ahead of the celebration. I'm like a kinder-kid. STOP! Turn that motorcycle around!!!! Go back and document. PHOTO OPPORTUNITY. Right there on Old Stage Road, in front of the Moravian church. I kid you not. A foretaste of the feast to come.

We arrived safely in central Ohio in time to unload the vast majority of our Earthly belongings in time to get to Mini-Gold football practice. What's a 12 hour drive through Chicago, without a nightcap of seven year olds in full pads and helmets attempting to learn that there is a difference between offense and defense? The things we do for love.

There is absolutely NOTHING more gratifying on this planet, than having your WonderPeeps gallop across an open field to pummel you with hugs. Like a slow motion fast-stop scene in an indie movie. Savor, savor, savor. Attempt NOT to get the air knocked out of you, in the full on crush and drink it all in. Priceless. Knowing that we were JUST together a mere couple of weeks before makes the reunion all the more sweet.

Three days of football/cheerleading practice are just enough to realize the length that parents go to on behalf of their wee-wonders. There aren't really enough minutes in the day, but a mama's heart is big.

   

This week. In the midst of packing boxes, and final bites of carrot cake and cartwheel practice and preparations for speaking engagements and Twitter chatting and a computer showing signs of utter meltdown, it just also happened to be the exact timing of the home visit of the court appointed Guardian Ad Litem for those same WonderPeeps. You may remember that the entire backdrop of this weekly Praise Reporting of mine is the divorce proceedings and custody battle that also continues unfolding as the seasons turn. That I was present for this monumental occasion is yet more evidence for a Creator invested in the minutia of life here as we know it.

Solomon in a denim skirt.

From my own personal time-hop: It is one thing to have your entire life that you are in the midst of living be declared null and void by your spouse, it is quite another to be thrust into a scenario where total strangers determine the next chapters of reality for your life. There is absolutely nothing about having the rug pulled out from underneath you that is easy. Trust me. I have the #BeenThereDoneThat t-shirt in my own collection.

The true test of character was walking through the fire, holding my head up and NOT embracing a victim mentality, in the midst of my world being torn apart. Item by item and weekend by weekend. Again, I know about being duped. Up close and personal. 

My own divorce 'ramp-up' story afforded me sufficient time between the feeling-in-my-gut, to my observations and the total destruction of all that I knew -- to devise a plan. Reflecting back now, I realize that to be the silver lining. Even back in the day, I was aware that I had the opportunity to come to grips with so much change because I had seen the evidence with my own eyes and while reeling as gravity and everything else I took for certain changed .....I was able to keep breathing. I digress. 

Tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time is the pretrial for our daughter's "LIFE". That's when the prayers need to mount up. That's when the total strangers will gather together and make decisions. 

{Or not. Anyone that has ever been involved with the courts knows the utter devastation of 'thinking' that there will be some closure by such-and-such a date, only to have that house of mirrors feeling of a continuance or some other interruption derail decisiveness, yet again.} 

So that was the beginning and middle of last week. 

There's just sooooooooooooo much to be grateful for in MY world. Spending time with those I LUV the most? PRICELESS.  Having meaningful work -- where I can contribute? That makes my life complete. 

Army Officer's Club. Fort Belvoir, VA Keynote and Workshops

Last week concluded with our trek to the Washington DC area. I got to give the keynote to start the school year at Fort Belvoir, one of our DC area Army bases. To say that I was humbled with the opportunity is an understatement. Quick wrap up there? THE TECHNOLOGY WORKED! We gathered in the Officer's Club. I gave four different break-out workshops following the keynote. The participants were so very receptive. 

It is an honor to share my picture book, "Red, White and Blue" whose song I wrote in the aftermath of September 11th with the teachers who teach the children of our Army personnel. [I had this opportunity to speak, because of having spoken in Germany at our Army bases there a couple years ago.] 

We ran out of books again. This is a VERY good problem to have. ESPECIALLY since we had driven and had an entire car packed with inventory(!) When you're preaching to the choir, a rousing response is not a surprise. A thunderous response however is a true delight.  

Let's suffice it to say, that I got my daily share of FitBit steps easily. 

Since then we have spent the weekend with daughter Noelle and her hubby. Such great times. We were part of the whole migration to the Eastern shore debacle with the Bay Bridge being closed. It was a LONG drive to get Noelle to the stage for her MidAtlantic Symphony concert in Delaware, but she made it!!! And we were thrilled to witness the concert. Her symphony was joined by the Army Blues band for quite an array of music before the concluding fireworks. WOW! 

It has been an ARMY weekend, indeed..... with my two Navy men. 

Then yesterday we had a great day together with amazing eats and seeing the musical "The Fix." Truly a stellar week! Wisconsin, to Ohio to Virginia to Maryland (with the concert in Delaware.) Tomorrow we return to Ohio before we fly to Colorado. Are you keeping this all straight?