Sabbatical Part 1 - Georgia/Alabama

And we're off! On a 30 day road trip through the southeast to interview ministers in parallel positions to our own at churches of similar size and mindset, to read, to reflect, to rest and to relax with our girls! What an exciting opportunity for sabbatical and what a gift from our church! With our car (not really our car but Andy's dad's van) packed to the roof and in every nook and cranny, we set out for our first destination... Atlanta! Less than a mile down the road, we stopped - to eat and feed everyone... then diaper changes, then back on the road again. This time we made it about 40 miles before stopping again - for gas... then 1 mile to stop again for car charger spliters. We trucked on for another while only to stop AGAIN.... so before we could even get to Atlanta we required 3 stops! Oh no, hopefully this was just a rocky start and not the pattern of what was to come! Arriving in Atlanta, Andy still not feeling his best, Lydi still on meds for an ear infection and Nad still have stomach bug issues, at least we were there. We spent the night and woke up for our first round of interviews, lunch and some fun in the pool. Within hours I was sick, sick, sick... in a hotel room with everyone piled in together. The next day Andy was feeling horrible and we were in for one of our our longest drives of the trip - Atlanta to Athens to Birmingham.

We did make it, stopping in at Milledge Avenue Baptist for a Go Red for Women Brunch in memory of Anne, Andy's mom. We met up with one of Andy's oldest childhood friends and his family in Birmingham for dinner and made plans to meet them for church and a trip to their farm the next day. We went to Shades Mountain Baptist for worship and had a wonderful day with friends.

In between church and the farm, we were able to visit with my Great Aunt Becky who lives in a nursing home in the area. She is the eldest living relative on my mom's side of the family. It was her first chance to meet both of the girls. Though hard of hearing, she is sharp as a tack and we had a delightful visit.

Mid-afternoon we headed out to Eric and Heather and their three children - Erica, Lucas and Savannah's home. A recent move for them, they are now living the farm life to the fullest. Nadia was able to check the chicken coop and "find" an egg they'd intentionally left behind for her to discover.

She romped all over the farm among the chickens, guineas and goats in some borrowed farm boots. As you can see, we look a little like "city" folks with her long sleeves and coat on (compared to Savannah who's not even wearing pants in the freezing cold!)

It took her a little while to warm up to the chickens being so close to her, but once she realized they were more afraid of her than she was of them, she had a ball.

She got to feed the ducks and fish in the pond.

Lydi was along for the farm adventure too!

Hummmm.... I'm not sure what to think of all this. I'll just hang onto Daddy!

Our next stop was Huntsville where we met with ministers at FBC Huntsville and went to the National Space Museum.

Where's Andy? Nadia? Lydia?

If you don't like crowds, February is a great time of year to visit the space museum - we had the whole place almost to ourselves. We ran into two other single people and a couple of school groups in passing and that was all during our entire visit!

Nad liked it for a while...

but at one point had had all the museum she could take. :)

That's when we found the more interactive parts like landing a space shuttle.

And the kid play area complete with legos

and a child sized mission control - a much happier Nadia!

By the time we left Alabama, everyone was feeling well again, we were starting to have a moment to breath to relax (just a moment... not much more than that, but I'll get to that later!) More to come as we moved on to our next state in the journey!