Reflections on Day 1: Tuesday, April 24
You know what’s scary?
Getting a call at 9:10 p.m. on the eve of a big trip from an automated
service that says “Your flight to Tampa at 6:50 a.m. has been cancelled”. That happened, and then I freaked out. I frantically called Delta’s help line and
then heard an incoming call beep in.
“You have been protected on Flight 1991 to Tampa at 7:10 a.m.” Funny trick, Delta. In the future – put those calls together to
prevent crazy, sleep-deprived women from freaking out.
So we got up at 4:00 a.m., my brother took us to the airport
at 4:45 a.m. and we were on our way at 7.
96 lbs. of luggage later, we boarded the plane. I’m a light packer – having grown up
believing that “thou shalt only carry on” was somewhere in the Bible – but it
just wasn’t happening for this trip.
Between business clothes for ten days, Emmalyn and Eric’s clothes, and
everything needed to feed and take care of her, we were busting through our
luggage. Emmalyn slept through our first
flight (after making great friends with everyone around us, especially three
women who were behind us in security and then behind us on the flight), and was
happy through the second flight (where she could still see her new
friends). After the flight, one of those
ladies said she wouldn’t be surprised if they were all pregnant in a month
after seeing Emmalyn – ha! My parents
arrived in Tampa right as we did, and we got straight into our hotel. We’re staying in adjoining suites, and it is
luxurious and wonderful - such an oasis in the midst of a time of much stress and busyness. After lunch and
some reading, Dad and I headed to opening worship.
Opening worship is always a big deal. All of the active and retired bishops proceed
through the assembly of gathered people, and it gives me goosebumps every
time. Despite what can be said about our
episcopal leadership, I’m grateful for our bishops. They have taken a strong and united stand
about our need to change in recent years, and they are leading us well. Seeing generations of our leadership walk to
the stage reminds me of the great faithfulness of the saints who have gone
before us. Our worship service lasted
1:45, and Bishop Goodpastor (appropriate name, huh?) addressed us. TThere were 4700 people present for opening
worship, and singing together is a great joy. he music was a mix of hymns,
contemporary worship, spirituals, and other genres –I’m hoping we can hear more
of these things, but maybe not blended together so much, in the future. Here is a picture of some of our bishops gathered around the communion table (which is located in the middle of our meeting space).
We had an hour and a half for dinner, but that time goes
fast when we are waiting for a restaurant and trying to breathe for a moment
before evening session. Evening session
started at 7:30 and we adjourned at 10:00.
Our first evening of plenary session was centered around approving the
rules for discussion and procedure of our time together. This included 1595 lines of words to be
approved. It took two-and-a-half hours
to do this, and we aren’t done yet ! That’s part of the hard thing about having
1000 voices together. Every voice is
important but it’s hard to value every opinion in the midst of minute details.
After 10:00, I back to the room, and crashed at 11,
wondering if Emmalyn or my alarm would wake me first in the morning. …
Love reading about your experience!! Two questions... are you still nursing? If you are pumping/breastfeeding through this intense schedule I bow at your feet. I get stressed out trying to plan around a date night.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how did you get your baby to sleep on a plane??? We have flown one time with Avery. Don't call cps on us, but we gave the girl benadryl before the flight to encourage her to nap :) and she was still squirming and fussing all over the place. The surrounding passengers did not love us.
Keep up the great work! The Methodist church is in good hands with you there :)
TMI to write a post about those things? A combination of pumping and nursing which is working out much easier due to my amazing mom's presence here!
DeleteIn regards to the plane - both times we've flown, I've been very nervous about how Em's ears would feel and wanted to help that out. I heard the sucking motion was helpful, so I try to nurse her right as we take off (not until the wheels are off the ground). That seemed to calm her and I just left her under my cover while she slept for an hour or so.
Glad to hear that things are going well for you Kathy. Thanks for posting - I love to read about it too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Pam!
DeleteBeing married to a man who works in the healthcare field (and comes home with all sorts of crazy stories) and going through the childbirth process twice... I've lost all sense of what's considered TMI. As a fellow nursing mom, I would find a post about how you balanced being a mommy and being a delegate very interesting!
ReplyDeleteNursing during take off... brilliant! When we flew with Avery she had just turned two and we were long past nursing and bottles. I did give her a sucker during take off but that might have only added to the squirminess come to think of it.
I think Emmalyn could still be nursing at two considering how much she loves it!! Not really, but she would probably take it if offered at that point. haha. I've heard suckers are a great plan, and I wouldn't doubt that decision for a minute - Squirminess is nothing compared to ear pain. I'm not going to lie...I downloaded a couple of kid apps for my iPhone just in case things got out of control, but thankfully those weren't needed. All rules are off when flying with children! :)
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