Women of Faith Conference, Over The Top!

A group of 26 women from Newington went to Women of Faith this past weekend. It was held in Washington D.C. at the same time as the Restore America Rally. It was crowded. :) We got up way to early on Friday and drove into Maryland and took the metro into D.C.

It was an incredible time. Being surrounded by 20,000 women and listening to amazing speakers. There were wonderful stories, fantastic music, lots of tears, lots of laughs, and lots of walking.

I couldn't tell you any one moment that was better than the other. It was just incredible. Mandisa and Steven Curtis Chapman had me in tears. Patsy Clairmont and Anita Renfroe had me in fits of laughter. The women we were traveling with made it all even better.

There are a few stories to tell though. First, during one of the breaks, they aired a video clip for World Vision. It was an amazing story about a woman who sponsored a little girl and after 8 years, actually got to go to Africa and meet the family. It was tear jerking (and was half the weekend). So I decided to 'just go look' at the table for World Vision. There were a few tables and a few people walking around with kids photos. I had a small stack in my hand and there was a lady next to me looking. She flashed a little boy's photo at me and said "isn't he cute?" I replied "yes, he is" and went back to my pile. I looked back at his photo one more time and noticed his birthday. (the lady was looking at him and another boy). His birthday was July 13th! My birthday!!! I literally took him out of her and and said "he has my birthday!" She said "Well, I guess he's yours then." So we are now sponsoring Nicholas from Colombia.

Second story. Brandy thought it would be fun to meet up on Friday night after the conference for coffee or just to hang out for a minute. She was in D.C. for her orientation to seminary! So we did. At 10pm after the conference Elisabeth, Brandy, Jermaine, and I wandered D.C. to Brandy's coffee shop place. I had water. Then they decided that it would be better for us to take the metro to their car and then would drive us back to the hotel. Hmmm...good plan in theory. Sadly Brandy's handy dandy Iphone 4 didn't like Jermaine and sent us on a tour of D.C. I felt so badly for Elisabeth 26 week pregnant and going on 24 hours of no sleep.

So at 1:45am we finally laid down to sleep. Only to have to get up at 6 for another full day of the conference and a 3 hour drive home. (sorry Elisabeth!) However, it was fun to see them. BUT, Brandy and I are only 10 days away from seeing each other again for our Forks, WA trip.

So that was that. It was great, a wonderful experience, that I totally plan on doing again next year. So here's to an "Over the Top" year!!!!