Home to Conference!

It’s feels great to be home even though it’s hard to figure out if it’s day or night. We thought we were over having jet lag but we have been waking up at 3 a.m. and thinking we should get up and go to work.  However, we pressed on, laid there looking at the ceiling until it was actually time to get up (my mom always used to tell me that rest was almost as good as sleep) and had a wonderful weekend!  We were lucky enough to get tickets for three of the sessions in the conference center!

 

Talk about serendpity, on Saturday morning it was gloriously warm (a record 80 degrees actually) we were lucky enough to be sitting right next to Clayton and Christine Christensen. He is a world-renowned speaker and on the cutting edge of changing the way we educate our kids. He also happens to be Charity’s ultimate boss along with Michael Horne who is Charity’s immediate boss in Palo Alto. It was a privilege to have a short chat with them. When I told Clayton that I had just been reading Disrupting Class on a 10 1/2 hour plane ride home from France the day before he said, “Oh I’m so sorry!”  Christine is purely a saint and ever watchful of his health.

We loved what we heard in the session. The phrase I loved the most was “We learn more from our kids than we do our parents.”  SO true. No offense to our parents, but we just don’t get it until we are parents!

We met the Archibalds for lunch and had a fun chat. We always laugh more than anything else when we’re together.

On Sunday morning we sent Saren and Eliza with our tickets and Jared and the boys had breakfast with us at the condo. Here they are, very excited to watch conference:

JK!  Conference wasn’t really in 3D but they were great little note-takers. I might have learned more from reading their notes that from hearing the real talks. They were adorable!  After a quick pizza party, Dad/Rick and I headed for the afternoon session. What a pleasure to be able to hear our dear friends Elder Perry, Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband, all speaking in the same session. 

By then there was a stiff wind, freezing rain and snow and we went an hour early so we wouldn’t have to stand in line whipped around by the weather.

It’s always a thrill to be there! But this time we sat right next to a lovely black couple from Haiti who had a darling little boy with them. We asked if they were there during the earthquake and they assured us that they were and that their house had been flattened. I noticed that their cute little seven year old was missing an arm. She said that they had three other children at home.Then as Elder Anderson began telling his story at the end of the session of this wonderful couple from Haiti who thought they had lost all their children in the earthquake, I realized that we were sitting by the stars of the story and that I already knew “the end of the story”.  They were a delightful couple who both served missions in Haiti and struggled with English but were full of big smiles and hope.

 

That is certainly a conference weekend we’ll never forget! Serendipity reigned as we soaked in the wonderful messages of our magnificent leaders and saw so many old and new friends!