TIME OUT FOR WOMEN

I have been totally slacking on the blog posts, so I am going to try to be better. This last weekend I had the privilege to go to the Time Out For Women conference in Pittsburgh over night. I have never been to anything like that before and I have not left the kids overnight to be away unless it was hospital stays...I did have some anxiety about it and I did shed some tears, but am thankful for my husband who held down the fort while I was gone and reassured me that I really needed this break before baby number 5 comes. We couldn't afford for Josh to miss work so I could leave earlier, so I waited until he got home and rode down with my friend Jen and met our other friends down there from our ward. I had printed out map quest directions, but thank goodness Jen brought her GPS, otherwise we would have been lost for sure! Pittsburgh was an interesting place, it was fun to be somewhere new and only took 2 hours exactly to get there. The conference was amazing and so uplifting, I have been in a slump lately and it was just what I needed. The theme was having infinite hope, and there were so many different messages through out that were speaking to me at this moment in my life, they talked about trials that we face as wives, mothers and women, how we can empower ourselves and things we can do to keep doing the best we can do. One phrase that I heard over and over that stuck in my mind, was even if we don't understand why we are going through certain things, our father in heaven does and we need to put our faith and trust in him. My absolute favorite and most inspiring talk was the very last one, it was a lady-Sis. Belcher who was diagnosed with eye cancer when she was 7 months old, it was amazing to listen to her life story, the trials she faced and the many, many surgeries she went through and the physical, emotional and mental pain she had to endure. She is disfigured and is blind, but she was resilient and bounced back to life and learned to laugh about things have hope and never gave up. She is married with 2 kids and it broke my heart to think what if I was blind my whole life and could never see my babies faces when I brought them into the world, thank goodness for eternal life and that one day we will all be resurrected and she will be able to physically see her family someday. I was anxious to get back home to my own husband and children, even when things are so trying and hard, I still have my family and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and really, things could always be worse. I am so blessed to have so many awesome friends, I had so much fun , here are a few pictures from the weekend..