Food for the Journey!

This weekend I am leading a retreat for 30 women in my congregation. We are heading away to a retreat centre in the middle of an area known greatest for fields and fields of daffodils. It should be lovely timing this year.
I am leading the entire retreat; 6 theme sessions and 3 worship services including Palm Sunday. Last year only 12 women came. I think it was because I was new and nobody had experienced my leadership before. I am glad the numbers have doubled this year. It`s exciting! The theme is ``Food for the Journey`` and we will look at food in the bible, food in our faith, food in our families. We`ll be making bread, engaging in a chocolate meditation and eating lots of homemade organic meals. What A treat!

Go Canucks Go!

Hockey playoffs begin on Wednesday and I am SO excited. Unfortunately I have a church meeting right smack in the middle of the first game. I guess I`ll have to carefully plan my meetings over the next weeks and months until the Canucks win the Stanley Cup!!!! It`s so great to see all the car flags everywhere. The spirit of community has returned. Go Canucks Go!

Adoption

Mother`s Day will mark one year since I ended my adoption process. A process of which I was involved in for three years. That`s right, THREE YEARS! I am still frustrated by the experience and the BC adoption system. There are thousands of children in this province and in my city who are just waiting for loving homes and it makes no sense to me that they continue to wait.
Moving on....I am considering international adoption. I recently met with a friend who is a long time, amazing, encouraging & knowledgeable adoption worker in Vancouver. We met for two hours as we worked through all the possible options. It comes down to one country and a HUGE amount of money. I am not sure if I will begin this journey. It`s a big decision.

My Green Thumb

I have declared this weekend to be my first full on gardening weekend. Tomorrow I am heading to a ``Green Thumb`` workshop; a workshop on gardening from seed. It`s free and offered by the local nature centre in the city. It wasn`t until after I signed up that I realized it is being led by one of the people I admire the most. A local agronomist, garden writer and food advocate in Richmond. I have worked with her over the years through various food programs in the city. I am SO excited!

This year I will have three gardens and I have them all planned out. The seeds are purchased and I`ve already won a free bag of manure. Yay! Next projects include building a worm composter and a potato growing bin. I love spring!

Travel in the works!

I am getting the itch to travel somewhere big. The last trip I took was in July 2009 to Guatemala. Last year, Israel was in the plan and then the car accident happened. For a number of reasons, the Middle East is not currently in the plan.

I am looking ahead to January 2012. I`ll take three weeks off and head somewhere in the world. Places on my list include France, Greece, Italy, Washington DC, China, India, New Zealand and Africa. It`s time to dream, plan, save and go! I`ll see what plan I come up with.

Family Week

Dad arrives today and my cousin Scott & his wife Christine will visit this weekend. I am BEYOND excited to have family in town. It doesn`t happen often as I am usually the one that travels to the USA. We are going to share some great meals, visit the local markets and on Saturday I will take my cousins to the BC LDS Temple of which I visited three times during its open house last year. They have yet to see its beauty. It looks to be a wonderful family week.

Japan

Tonight I participated in a multi-faith prayer service for Japan. About 70 people attended with only two days notice. 14 different faiths were represented and prayers (spoken and sung) were offered. Everybody lit candles and prayed together in one large circle prayer before leaving for the night. It was amazing, inspiring, holy and peaceful. We can only hope that what we did tonight will bring courage and help to encourage the people of Japan. Tonight was a great example of why I am so thankful to be living in the place I live - a significant multi-cultural, multi-faith community.