A Blessed Time at the dotMOM Conference

Thank you David Lowe for the beautiful photo’s and video!

You all know that I was invited to be a guest at the dotMOM conference in Birmingham AL. on behalf of LifeWay and B&H Publishing.  I know..it’s an incredible crazy blessing!!  Well I’ve finally recovered from my loooong trip…

What a blessed time at the dotMOM conference…I’ve never been on a trip like this before.  Flying from the Pacific NW across the country was quite an adventure for me!  Up at 2:30 am and at the airport by 4:00 ..by the way I would like to know what other people are doing on the road at that time of night?? .

My sweet hubby dropped me off and I was so sure that I would just go through security and off to my gate.. “are you sure you can find your way” he asks  “of course!”  I said in my independent way LOL…well..my gate was VERY far away!  SeaTac is a HUGE air terminal…and I had NO idea where to go..I had also NOT had enough coffee yet by this time to make sense of where to go.  I found  a sweet stewardess and she explained…go waaay down there until you see a ramp..go down that ramp and then up two escalators,  then take 2 trains and after you get off of those trains take 2 more escalators down and then you will see your S gates….WHAT?  

I arrived in Atlanta Georgia to have a sweet surprise that several other Bloggers had flown into Atlanta also to catch the next flight off to Birmingham.  What a sweet bunch of gals.  That evening we were taken out to a wonderful Italian Restaurant…Mmmm deelish!  I LOVE Italian! 

God also blessed me with a very sweet roommate Deb Wolf..she blogs at Counting My Blessings.  As we got ready for bed that evening full of great food and exhausted from our trip I decided I had better make a quick call home to let them know I had arrived safely.

As I was chatting with my hubby the worst thing happened..my son had fallen off his Long Board (like a skateboard) and his head was gushing blood.  A Mom does NOT want to hear this when she is a thousand miles away…I don’t really know how many miles it was but it was too many!  My people began to panic..i.e.. my husband.  Thankfully my fourteen year old got everyone in control and moving toward the car and the emergency room in a flash..she’s such a Mom..  The next couple of hours I would spend communicating with my family..not sleeping.  

My son was fine..7 stitches and he was good to go! 

So enough about what went on while I was gone..which is always an adventure..

Let’s see..how would I describe a dotMom event..For Moms of all ages,  Spirit Filled,  Fun,  Funny,  Practical and Spirit Filled Teaching,  Spirit filled Worship well you get the picture.   The conference started off with a big bang with our MC’s Sophie Hudson and Melanie Shankle.  These gals are a total crack up..if you would like to get a taste of there sense of humor you can hop on over to there blogs and get a quick laugh! 

The worship was totally amazing led by Melissa Greene..former singer for Avalon.  Not only was her singing amazing,  but her heart to lead you into the throne room of God is amazing!!  It totally prepared our hearts for God to speak to us in an intimate way.

First up for teaching Friday afternoon was Jen Hatmaker!  If you have not heard of Jen Hatmaker you are in for an amazing treat.  Her style of teaching is funny and serious all at the same time…raise BRAVE KIDS to be Disciples for Christ!  Don’t be OVER protective.  This is a good message in a generation that sometimes is afraid to allow children to experience just a little bit of disappointment in life! 

We were then dismissed to enjoy any one of the 36 breakout sessions!! Soo  many fantastic speakers that it was soo hard to decide.  The first session I went to was Kelly Hancock of Faithful Provisions  you know me..I’m all about learning,  sharing,  and saving!  Visit Kelly’s site and you’ll do the same!  On Saturday I sat in on Sami Cone’s Following Our Passion!  It was fantastic and inspired me to pursue my passion no matter what it is!  You can be inspired too at SamiCone.com

Friday evening Authors and Speakers Sissy Goff and David Thomas spoke to our hearts about raising boys and girls..they were RIGHT ON TARGET…love, love, love there ministry!

We were given lot’s of time interspersed  in the conference to visit the Exhibit Area, shop and have fun! I loved that..not just because it’s fun to shop..but so many of the booths represented were for a great ministry and cause! 

 

My New Friends from LifeWay and B&H Publishing! 

Which by the way honored and loved on us Bloggers like crazy!!

Saturday Vicki Courtney spoke with a passion for teaching Moms not to create little “ME” Monsters.  It was great!  I think the Lord is amazing because these gals did know what each one would be teaching and yet there teaching all blended together in the most beautiful way..with the same underlying message..kids should not thing “it’s not about me!”

I have to say that my most favorite part of the conference were the Compassion International and Operation Christmas Child Speakers..these were Gals that had benefited from these programs while they were young.  Now they are grown women and they each had a special memento that they had kept and brought to show us at the conference from when they were children.  It sooo touched my heart!

Well one more thing impacted my life in a very touching way by John Croyle,  Founder of Big Oak Ranch.  You will not believe the awesome ministry this Man and His family have..you NEED TO HOP OVER AND READ ABOUT IT!!

Um.. this is getting waaay too long! LOL So maybe I’ll save the rest of my goodies for another time..

BUT One last thing ….

dotMOM is going to be in Dallas, Texas in 2013. 

You want to be there MOMS!