Bon Voyage Gigi!

Well, a few weeks ago in a post I said that we were spending Independence Day weekend in the Valley with my Mom. While that was accurate, we didn't stay as long as we had planned because it turned out that we just went to pick up Gigi and bring her home with us!

Her A/C failed the Tuesday before, and the Valley is generally 10 degrees warmer than Houston. It makes me want a glass of ice water just thinking about it! So my Mom spent the 5th thru the 21st with us up here. It was really wonderful having her here, not just because I could spend my days and nights in the library prepping for midterms. (Which I aced...praise the Lord!) We also got to do some fun things like visit the Blue Bell Creamery, go to Galveston and tour the Moody Mansion, and finally have someone who shares my sentiments regarding the Menil Museum, which is a few blocks from our house.

That her A/C broke when it did was certainly a "God thing". It needs to be replaced completely which is both terribly expensive and time consuming. But, she had only just made plans to go and stay with her Sister in Belgium on the 21st, so she won't have to worry about it until she comes back. My Aunt Linda and Uncle Scott have lived in Europe for the last, I want to say 6 years. My Uncle is a Chaplain and Colonel in the Army and he was posted to Germany, then Italy and now Belgium. Each time they have stayed in a massive native home of some kind. A visit from my Mom was supposed to be my Aunt's birthday present 6 years ago, but the timing was always bad. My Aunt called her a few weeks ago to invite her to live with them for awhile and God finally said YES!

She'll be gone for 3 months, with a likely option for 3 more. While she's there she'll see my sister-in-law, be there when Johnny returns to Germany from his deployment to Iraq, and see and do things all over Western Europe. I love my Mom to pieces, she's my best friend and if anyone deserves a European vacation, it's her. Our family has been through a lot, but she's never had a "break". With my Dad there was always something, and after he died there was supporting herself to think of and countless other things she had to handle. The only real downside is that this means we won't see her for a long time, but God took care of that too with the unexpected long visit we had with her. He is so good.

We love you Gigi and can't wait to hear all about what you see and do over there! And a huge thanks to my Aunt and Uncle for letting God use them in a mighty way!