The emails and Facebook messages have already been flowing in… “how did it go?” “Oh, I wish I could have been there. Was it great?” “I was praying for everyone, can’t wait to hear all about it!”

Normally when you come back from a conference you are ready to share with the world all of the wonderful things you learned and how much fun you had connecting with other people… it’s a little different when you were such a direct part of planning everything.

It’s also hard to drill something you’ve worked on for almost a year into just a few words… “Things went really well,” just leaves a little to be desired, you know?

So, allow me to give just a few highlights, and then perhaps others who were there will also want to share.

First, our leadership team ROCKED. Carol and Shauna and Anna and Kristi and Allison all did such an incredible job this weekend and things seemed to go pretty smoothly for all involved with much of the credit going to this team of ladies who are so determined to minister and love on military wives. If you missed the chocolate fountain, you missed something great! YUM!

The speaking sessions were also wonderful. Carol McGlothlin, Marshelle Carter Waddell and Judi Fuller brought such insight and encouragement and needed challenges to each of us and Marshelle’s session was a definite hit with her candlelit dinner and the rollers in her hair. Each of these ladies had us laughing and crying and it was obvious God worked in a lot of lives this weekend.

There were so many women there who were struggling with different issues in their marriages. But the joy and the beauty of it all was that each of these ladies were making the commitment to say “This is the Day I Pursue God” as Marshelle so aptly talked to us about. “This is the Day I’m going to commit all over again to my marriage and to my husband” as Carol talked about. “This is the Day I’m going to choose to thrive instead of just survive this deployment,” like Judi shared.

Babette Maxwell from Military Spouse Magazine was unable to make it because of a PCS that unexpectedly hit right during the week of our conference but Allison Smith, who also works for Military Spouse, was able to lead a session “This is the Day to Talk.” We also had a panel discussion Saturday afternoon where we had a chance to take questions from the ladies and some of the speakers and a couple of other experienced military wives shared their thoughts. Questions about PTSD came up – this is and will continue to be something that military wives will need to learn more about because even if your husband isn’t exhibiting signs now, he may very well years from now and it’s necessary that you know the signs and what to do to help him and yourself and your family.

It was so much fun getting to know new military wife friends from around the country and seeing the range of ages there as well – some wives had been married 38 years, some just six months. Some were active, some were Guard and Reserve. All came with the hope of connecting with others who understood. All came looking for encouragement and a chance to connect with God this weekend and with others who share their same belief in Christ. My prayer is that all who came found just that. As one wife wrote on her comment card at the end of the weekend, “It’s the first time I’ve been to a conference where I really felt everything pertained to me.” That was exactly what we hoped we could do so I pray many felt that way.

We have already had ladies asking if we will be having this again next year – we will be looking at that possibility as well as the possibility of “taking it on the road” and doing some one-day conferences in different locations of the country to make it a little more easily accessible to wives.

Pictures from the weekend will be coming soon here and on our website and we will be sending a survey out to those who attended to get a better idea of what worked well and what can be improved.

ALSO – for everyone who is interested, we will be offering an audio download of several of the sessions for $10. Be watching for that in the coming weeks. That will be available on our website and we will post news about it here as well as in the newsletter.

If you attended the conference and would like to share something you enjoyed or something that God did in your life this weekend, please comment or email us. We’d love to hear your stories!

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