Eyrealm: From Benches to Birmingham and a Birthday to Bulgaria

Our church believes in allowing the members to work a little for the privilege of worshipping in a beautiful, clean ward building. The blessings are spread around to each of the three congregation who worship in our building so our turn comes to clean the building on a Saturday morning comes only once a year. Richard is having a lot more fun than he does when he tries this at home! Plus, he’s working so fast that he’s blurry!

Within a few hours we were on a plane to Birmingham, Alabama where we spoke to an outstanding group of parents and their kids. We stayed with the delightful family of the organizer who had a very unique living room. Yup, that’s a swimming pool! It was all I could do to keep Richard from jumping off the balcony by our room into the pool.

Our host was also on the board of the incredible botanical gardens in Birmingham which we enjoyed immensely!

Elkhorn and Elephant’s Foot:

We did a session with the kids on “A Secret Code” and “Making Decisions in Advance” and then another session with the parents that combined “Raising Responsible Kids” with “Keeping the Romance Alive” (because it was a Valentine’s Day event).

Scott, our organizer and his truly incredible wife Kelley, who did all the nitty gritty work(since Scott doesn’t have a phone) pulled off two first class events! This is the only picture I have of Scott as he carried out the centerpiece home for his wife. A nice reward so well-deserved!

Scott escorted us to downtown Birmingham after the event.

We were excited to see the Civil Rights Institute, which we enjoyed immensely! Having just seen the movie Selma (which we think everyone should see to get a glimpse of the events surrounding the Civil Rights Movement), it was especially poignant. Across the street was the famous 16th Street Baptist Church which was bombed killing four beautiful little girls and set off the firestorm at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

A BIG BIRTHDAY!

You only turn 12 once and we got home in time to celebrate that very special birthday with Eliza, Saren’s only daughter at the Grand America Tea Party. What fun!

We watched a Jasmine flower unfold before our very eyes after it was dropped into hot water in a goblet which served as our centerpiece. It was a delightful hour!

YUM!

That night we went to a lovely Gala sponsored by One Heart Bulgaria, a Humanitarian organization that Eyrealm has been supporting for many years. Even though it was her birthday, Eliza chose to go with us since she helped her brothers to organize the 8th annual Loosli Children for Children Concert this year which raised a nice contribution for this organization. These wonderful people have done remarkable things to support orphans in Bulgaria.

Saren has been supporting this great cause ever since she did her missionary service in Bulgaria and worked in the orphanages they support. She even traveled back to Bulgaria when she was 7 months pregnant with the twins to help. It was a thrill to see these beautiful women who were all missionaries in Bulgaria and have supported this terrific organization through the years.