6 years 10 months 20 days

Day 2515. I went to bed at 2:30, and at 8 am my alarm went off.  We all got up even though some of the kids had a very hard time, especially Tammy, then we went to the breakfast room. I helped them get their food, then returned to our room; we still had chicken and rice left over from last night that I warmed up and ate while preparing for my 9 am student. I taught until 10 am. Randy and the kids returned before that, and Tammy and Emmy were getting their school books out to do some exercises.

After I had finished at 10 am, we packed up, Randy loaded up the car, and it was 11 am before we drove off to continue on our way. It was definitely later than planned. The projected driving time was 4 hours 45 minutes. We drove for 2 hours before stopping for a bathroom break. I used the tortillas and pepperoni we had to make sandwiches for everyone to eat, while Randy bought a big cup of soda or rather icecubes with a little soda as that keeps him awake. Then we continued on our way.

At 2 pm the second soccer semi-final started, and I turned it on on my phone to watch. Emmy was holding my phone watching, but after 50 minutes he was done and handed it back to me. England had scored, and for Emmy the game was over. I then continued watching by myself. Then Argentina scored, and I handed the phone back to Emmy. When they scored again and won, Emmy was actually crying tears.

At 3 pm we had another bathroom break, then we finished driving to Forth Worth, Texas, where we arrived just after 4:30 pm. We checked in, and the receptionist offered to take our picture. Then we went to our room where we waited for Randy to bring in all our luggage. The kids were playing hard, jumping from bed to bed and running around, which is what they needed after a day in the car but I was extremely tired not having slept in the car and couldn't really take all that ruckus.

Just before 6 pm we got back into the car to drive the 13 minutes to the church where the conference was taking place. We got there just after 6 pm, parked and walked in. We registered, then lined up to get into the sanctuary. The doors were opening at 6:30 pm. We ended up getting good seats, then left to check the kids into kids' ministry.

This year it wasn't as well organized as last year. Nobody had called us to find out more about Sammy. There were lanyards with name badges there for all the kids as well, just as for the adults, and our kids' name were lying in the 2nd grader group. The kids got their lanyards, and one team member took Tammy and Emmy upstairs to the room right away. As for Sammy, the lady made sure she had my phone number, then she told us to wait for someone to come help get Sammy up the stairs. The guy carried him while Randy carried the empty wheelchair upstairs. Then we left to go to the sanctuary for the meeting.

It started at 7 pm with an hour of worship, then Randy Clark was the first speaker of his conference. I was glad that I had my jacket with me as the sanctuary was freezing cold. I was also so tired that I could not keep my eyes open and kept falling asleep. Just before 10 am the meeting was over, and we left to pick up the kids. They got their conference T-shirts, and they returned their name badges in return for stickers. Then we left and walked to the car. Just after 10 pm we drove off in the direction of the hotel. On the way we stopped at Domino's pizza to pick up a pizza for us to eat. By 10:30 pm we were back at the hotel and went to our room to enjoy eating our pizza. Then the kids went to bed. Now it's 1:30 am, and my eyes keep falling shut. It's another short night ahead.