I had an incredible opportunity to attend the .MOM conference in Birmingham this weekend. Me, my mom and Aimee hit the road early Friday morning and we arrived at the Sheraton Hotel around 10:00. I was quite excited about this trip for two reasons: 1) I knew the conference was going to be absolutely phenomenal, and 2) we were staying overnight in a hotel room. I know this doesn't sound like a huge deal to most of you, but let me tell you . . . I love staying in hotel rooms. I really, really do. I don't care if its for one night or for six, but that feeling of 'being on vacation' can't be beat. I realize that this euphoric feeling may come to an end faster than you can say 'madagascan flying cockroach' if I were to stay in some sleazy, bug-ridden nightmare of a room, but as of yet, I haven't had a bad experience. I'm sure the clock's probably ticking, but until the timer goes off, I'm gonna keep lovin' me some Sheraton, Hyatt, Marriot . . . you name it, I'll probably be all about it.
Ok, so we get checked in and settled into our room and we head down to a little diner called 'Sophia's' to eat. It was a greasy-spoon type place, but I had myself a killer cheeseburger. We walked down there, ate, and got back to the BJCC in about 30 minutes. We headed into the hall where the conference was gonna be held and walked around in the Lifeway marketplace for a while, just until the conference kicked off at one.
Melissa Greene (formerly of Avalon) headed up the worship time, along with her band (which also featured another former member of Avalon . . . if only I could remember his name) and they were really, REALLY good. They had no problems getting everybody there into a sense of worship and ready to hear what God had to say. The main speakers for the event were Angela Thomas, Angie Smith, Vicki Courtney and Priscilla Shirer. There were also two 'breakout sessions' that you could attend during the day that were hosted by several other well-known Lifeway contributors and authors. And of course, we have to mention that The Duggar's made a surprise visit Friday night. I'm not a big Duggar's follower, but some of you would probably like to know.
I have to say that my favorite speaker was Angie Smith. Not because she was the most popular, or the most eloquent, but because we're a lot alike. She lost her baby, Audrey, after just a couple of hours of her coming into the world. I've kept up with Angie through her blog, and she wrote a book that was of great encouragement to me called 'I Will Carry You'. Her husband, Todd, is the lead singer of the group 'Selah', so if you're a Christian music follower you may have heard the song with the same title. She spoke on Friday night to this group of 1300 women, but she also hosted a breakout group to about 30 of us that had lost babies. I can't tell you completely what a fabulous time with her that this was. She didn't speak from a podium on a stage with a microphone, and she didn't want to dominate our time together. We all sat cross-legged on the floor and she began to tell us about Audrey (if you want to know her story, click the 'Bring The Rain' button on my page). She then told us that she just wanted this to be a time of sharing . . . all of us, not just her. After a couple of minutes, she prayed and then the stories began circulating around the room. Story after heartbreaking story of loss, love and redemption started falling on my ears, and for the first time in a room full of people other than my family, my tears started to fall. Not just a little, but I was weeping, and for once, I didn't care. We were all there for the same reasons, and this person that so many people know, respect and admire was there listening and guiding us. I never got a chance to share my own story, but that feeling of belonging and being with people that knew the pain that I had experienced was enough. We had an hour to be in there together, but we took a good 90 minutes sharing one another's hurts. It felt so good to be there, and I'll never, ever forget what that was like for me. Breakout session #3 was definitely the best part of the conference for me.
We ended up our .MOM weekend with Priscilla Shirer, and she's one that can get your fire going. If you've never heard her and you have the opportunity, DO IT. She gave us a good 'whatever you do, don't give up' word, and we were on our way. Or, we thought we were on our way. We got out of the hotel parking lot, only to find that that weird, creaking noise we heard wasn't the just the 'way the tires sounded on the pavement' (Jan's fine reasoning), but it was the sound of (pretty much) not having a tire. The tire was so bloomin' flat that we were carryin' this buggy on the rim. After a quick call to CAPS, Mr. Tireman came, fixed the tire AND the trunk that was givin' us fits, and then we were on our way . . . really, this time.
The .MOM conference will be back in Birmingham next year on this same September weekend, so all you mamas out there need to go! Hey, if you do, maybe we can get adjoining hotel rooms. Wouldn't that be FUN?!
Love,
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