2500 miles down the road and home!

Dear friends,

We are back from our trip to Colorado. Adjua, Greg and I left as scheduled on Tuesday, June 22nd. We drove to Buffalo, WY the first day and drove up into the National Forest to put up our tent for the night. It was dark when we got there. I saw something white on the ground, thinking it was a paper towel or something left by other campers. It was snow! Well, we woke up to beautiful mountain pasture views and a buck with a big rack. We also realized that Adjua's mattress had gone flat and she had been cold all night. It didn't make her a fan of camping to put it mildly!

We arrived in Highlands Ranch on Wed. at about 5:00. We enjoyed dinner with Janet and Sean Willcox, our hosts. Lots of laughter and instantly feeling at home with these dear friends. We settled in.

The next day Greg began his 3 day participation in the OMF board meeting. While he did that, Adjua took advantage of shadowing our former family doctor in Littleton- Rich Valenciano. She really enjoyed her two days there. She has to log over a 100 hours shadowing many different kinds of doctors as a prerequisite for med school.

While they were busy, I connected with friends. It was such a blessing to spend quality time with these supporters and friends. I attended a few OMF board dinners with Greg and on Saturday evening, we hosted a dinner party get together with friends and family at the Willcox's. We had fun catching up as well as seeing many of them connecting to each other for the first time...The Body of Christ at work.

Sunday we went to Cherry Hills Community Church and hugged many friends, had lunch with our old support group and relaxed for the evening. Monday morning we headed for Rocky Mountain National Park with Julie, Hannah and Andrew as well as Adjua. We knew our other friends were already camping there and planned to surprise them. It was a gorgeous day. We invaded their campsite and waited about a half hour for them to return from their morning outing. They worried when they noticed someone in their campsite. When they realized it was us, they were ecstatic. We climbed boulders by a waterfall, had lunch and dinner together, went to see the elk up close, and had Adjua'a first campfire and some'ores. We drove home watching the stars and recounting all the day's fun memories.

Tuesday we caught up with everything and went to dinner with Gene Kissenger. It was excellent to catch up on things at CHCC and at Partners. Gene is a gift to us from the Lord. We might be able to connect in Asia when we will all be there in October. At 2:20 a.m. Jenni arrived at DIA from Huntington Beach with me waiting to bring her home.

Wednesday and Thursday Greg lead 2 days of Partners meetings in Highlands Ranch. I picked up snacks for them and caught up with Jenni. She and Adjua and I hung out. Jenni caught up with her best friends after we went to Castle Rock to meet Greg's sister, mom and cousin for several hours.

Friday morning we left for DIA to get both Allison and Jesse who were flying in for the weekend. Jesse had a 4 day pass for the first time. Allison also had those days off and had a free ticket from being bumped on another trip. We had a great time greeting them both and hearing about Jesse's interrogation training. He has bulked up and is excited about what he is learning. We went to Idaho Springs since the freeway was too congested to get to Breckenridge for the day. We watched Ghana play Uraguy in the World Cup at BeauJoes. That was exciting since we had a Ghanaian with us. Then we went to Evergreen and paddled around the lake there. It was our 27th anniversary that day!

Saturday morning we took off for Shelby's (Greg's sister's) for our nephew's wedding. They got married with Pike's Peak in the background in their front lawn. It was a beautiful wedding. We talked a mile a minute and caught up with family that evening and the next morning. The cousins and friends made a movie that night and had a great time.

Sunday night we arrived back in Highlands Ranch for dinner and fireworks with friends. It poured, so no fireworks. But lots of fun was had as we remembered old stories and made new ones. The kids went to the airport in the morning- me taking Allison at 4:30. We packed and left about 9:30 to head home. We camped in the same area and this time woke up in a cloud! Adjua slept in the car that time!

We arrived home at 5:15 with 1135.7 miles from this leg on the odometer! God is so good! It was all we had dreamed and hoped for our trip to be. Thank you so much for praying for our trip if you did.

I am off for the chiropractor now so I need to get going! God bless you- Nancy