Angie and I hit U.S. soil at noon on Monday when we landed at O’Hare airport. Once home we enjoyed dinner with our families and hit the sack. Wow…jet lag is a killer!

Our events in Vienna and Budapest were wonderful. Angie said it was fascinating to watch the audience, especially in Hungary. The ladies clung to every word. They are so hungry for encouragement.

There were dozens of conversations with moms about everything from their hearts being broken by wayward children to struggling with the everyday challenges of raising young children. One mom in Hungary was so exhausted. She came in carrying a newborn and said she had two at home. She said she came so empty but left so full. That makes it worth it all!

Here are some pics from the Vienna event:

The above pic is Angie and I with the Vienna team and speakers. What a great group of ladies!

Angie kept a journal during the week. Here are a few notes from her journal:

From Tuesday:

We arrived at the Frankfort, Germany airport after a long flight with no sleep. We had to go through customs, show our passport, and tell why we were in Germany. Jill and I both went up next to each other to two different custom officers at the same time. She was on my right and her customs officer spoke first in a thick German accent. He said, “Why are you here in Germany?”. Jill said, “We are speaking at the American Army Base at a conference.” “What are you speaking on?”. “Parenting and marriage”. “Parenting and marriage?” “Yes, parenting and marriage”. He said, “Are you going to tell the wives that they are to do everything that the husbands tell them to do?” Jill smiled and said, “Yeees, exactly”. He smiled/smirked, stamped her passport, and let her through.

The funny thing was that my customs guy was so intent on listening to the conversation between Jill and her customs officer that he didn’t even ask me any questions. Just stamped my passport and let me go through.

From Thursday:

At the Vienna Mom’s Day Out conference it was very interesting listening to the speakers and then their interpreters. With Jill, everytime she spoke on something funny the English speaking attendees would laugh, then Martina would translate and the German speaking attendees would laugh. It was like two waves of laughter every time. The same thing happened in Hungary.

Another powerful memory was when we sang worship songs in Vienna. They would start out in English (on Powerpoint) and then switch verses to German. Then the chorus would be in both English and German so you would hear 130 moms singing in two different languages praising God all at the same time. It was so powerful that Jill and I both were very emotional.

Here are some pics from Budapest, Hungary:

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2 Comments

Shelly on April 29, 2009 at 3:12 pm

Praising in the two languages…what a wonderful experience! Thanks for sharing.

The picture of the food…my kind of girls! Oreos! I guess chocolate isn’t just an American thing!
Anonymous on April 30, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Glad to have you back, sounds like a wonderful experience. Since you just got back Mon. I can understand the emotions flowing at M2M on Wed.