An Adventure of Olympic Proportions!

Last week the kids and I had the exciting opportunity to take in a little of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, B.C. with our dear friends Barb and Joel! We did not go for an event, but we did have a fantastic time seeing the sites and “feeling” the energy that only the Olympic Games could bring! Everything about the day was so great and made for spectacular memories! Crossing the border with ease, free parking, beautiful weather, nice people, some education for the kiddos at the Olympic Mint Pavilion and seeing a huge zip line in downtown Vancouver were just a few of the highlights! We saw a 28 lb. gold bar, worth roughly half of a million dollars, and took our photo with Queen Elizabeth II…in the form of a million dollar gold coin!! We saw “Elvis”, a beautiful real bronze cowgirl and met a guy we consider to be Canada’s biggest fan…and I am certain you will agree when you see the photo!! We ended the day with a long awaited ride on Vancouver’s amazing public transit system, the Sky Train. That ride alone made our whole day as it was the moment JD had been talking about for a week prior and boy was he thrilled! You want to know the best part… the part that makes the day truly special?? You may ask….how was I able to load up my sweet kiddos and truly enjoy a day with them and know that my Papa and Gigi would be well cared for?? Well I am going to tell you…

A few weeks ago a sweet lady in our church approached me and expressed her desire to come one day a month and spend time with Papa and Gigi so that I can take our children, with no worries, and spend a day away just enjoying our time together. I could hardly believe it. To borrow the words of a beautiful song….”How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure”. He knows even our smallest, most insignificant desires and loves us so much that He lavishes on us blessings we could not imagine…this is one of those. Audrey is a married woman with grown children and for sure a very full life with her family, church and service to others. Her sacrifice for our family is “faith in action”; the love of Christ in her is being fleshed out in everyday life, and we are the humble recipients. Titus 2:3-5 says…..Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Audrey is doing just that…”teaching what is good”. I may not be sitting under her “teaching” in a book form…but I am learning well from her. She is in word and deed showing me actions of an “older woman” that are pleasing to the Lord.
We were greatly encouraged on our first time away and will undoubtedly continue to be refreshed each month thanks to one special lady! We… are… so… grateful!