Catching Up

I think it's well past time for me to get caught up in Blogger world, and move on to what is actually happening in the present. That said, here's the rest of our infamous trip from oh, over a month ago (why does it feel like a year ago?) Anyway...

Here you see Sarah continuing on the Russell legacy of outrageous athleticism.

The day after "the surprise" kicked off fall break for Sarah and Christopher, so we spent some quality time enjoying the gorgeous Fall weather with some football and soaking up the sun on AU's campus.

Thanks to my sister for capturing this pretty picture of Michael 

and me thoroughly enjoying all things Indiana.

The whole gang. Sarah and Olivia make a cute couple, yes?

And here we transition to our adventures in TH. Which, sadly, meant we had to say goodbye to Sarah. But on the bright side, sunsets over freshly harvested corn fields are something I will never take for granted. Indiana will always be home to this girl.

Christopher, Alison, Michael and I spent the day wandering around the farm and setting up camp under this enormous tree.

Here we have our campsite and a super old tent more accurately described as "vintage" since that makes it infinitely more cool...which it was.

Before dinner we spent some time with the babies, and this is one of my favorite photos. What you can't see, is that another very curious calf was inches away from my face, literally breathing in my ear as I snapped this picture :) He just loved whoever had the camera and pretty much followed it around everywhere.

After a big tasty home cooked meal, we set out for our campsite where Chris whooped us all in Clue multiple times.

We got tired of losing pretty quickly so we moved on to more entertaining ventures like star-tripping and expressing our theories on evolution...Kidding! Good old Indiana had a fire ban and after all the fun wore off we decided it would be much more comfortable sleeping in a warm house with beds. So we did. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast and then headed back to Cville so that Michael could catch a Wabash football game before we left for Indy to see some of our good friends get married!

 And they lived happily ever after...

while we went straight to bed before waking up early Sunday morning to make the drive back to CO.

As I've reflected on this trip over the past...month, I can hardly understand where the time has gone. It was such a jam packed week filled with so many faces and places and lessons along the way. I will never forget the looks on the faces of the people I love most when they realized who was standing in front of them. And I will forever be grateful that I always have them to come home to. But this trip was so much more than just ten days of fun and surprises; I learned more in those ten days than any other. The thirty hours spent driving across the country with my husband was a blessing straight from heaven in a time when we so needed to be united and closer to Jesus than ever before. The Lord totally used our impulsive decision to pick up and leave to reveal some things to us about ourselves that we otherwise may not have seen; to convict us of the things we were not doing well enough; to reveal to us things we never knew existed; to teach us humility and love; and to show Himself to us in grace and mercy. We came back to CO excited, exhausted, faithful and with a renewed sense of purpose and awareness about what God had called us to.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

THE END.