Leeds

The final leg of our trip was two nights in Leeds, a suburb of Birmingham. It was our first time back in the city since our two-week stay with the Soileaus' as evacuees during Katrina. It was so fun to see their new house which has plenty of space for us when we evaucate to their home (a permanent piece of our hurricane preparedness plan!). We love our friends, Jeremy and Christa and their girls. Being with them is absolutely no work which is why we choose to spend time with them in the midst of possible tragic circumstances. As we expected, stopping for a visit to make the trip home more bearable ended our vacation with just the right tone.

Birmingham is another place that has fond memories. I first visited SEBC in February '93 with my sister and brother-in-law for the college's missions conference. It was during that week that God let me peek in on His plan for my life ... to serve Him in every area of my life. I returned as a freshman in the fall of 1993 and completed two years. I matured during that time, but I had more growing to do. Mounting school loans and a serious relationship helped me decide to finish with an A.A. degree. However, a year later, I found myself almost out of debt, recovering from a broken engagement, and longing for a more meaningful job than that of a bank teller. In January '97, I moved back to Bham to finish my degree in El. Ed. with a successful plan to complete my education financially on my own. God granted my desire. While I was on "sabbatical", Doug arrived as freshman at SEBC. We met in a summer class in '97, dated throughout our junior/senior years, graduated in May '99, and celebrated the beginning of our marriage the next day in a city we'd learned to love, a distinct common ground from our hometowns.

For us, a trip to Birmingham is incomplete without Johnny Ray's bbq and pie for dessert. In college, we didn't always splurge on pie but now we do EVERY time. Here's what I left on my plate ... it was too much goodness to enjoy in one sitting so I took a picture so this slice of lemon pie would last longer. After lunch, we drove onto our old college campus (now a church as the college has moved to a new campus), and explored the main building. It looks much different now (and better!), and I couldn't help feeling the colliding emotions of familiarity and intrusion. It seemed we still belonged there, yet there's no connection anymore. It was a delight to walk the halls with two little boys running ahead knowing that God had used that place to bring me and Doug together at His appointed time. We tried to explain to Sam what the place was, but as we pulled away, he seemed to be distraught somehow thinking that I was going to stay there. Again, I'm grateful that God allows unique seasons of our life. I'm thankful I'm not stuck in the college one, but happy to enjoy the memories of it.