A trip to the Promised Land

Enjoying the front porch with Kelly and Miss Kennedy

Happy Birthday Zach!

Beautiful park in Greenville

Our hike to John's rock...enjoying a "real" fall

 We took a long weekend over Zach's birthday in October to travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina (proclaimed by the Bozards to be the Promised Land) to visit our friends Kelly and Michael Bozard, and the newest member of the Bozard family, 4 month old Kennedy Weathers.  Michael and Zach have been talking about a potential partnership in Spartanburg, so a good part of the visit focused on seeing the pediatric dental practice and discussing future possibilities.  The Bozards, as always, showed us the best Spartanburg and the surrounding area had to offer.  Our trip involved a delicious meal with Kelly's cooking club, lunch at Michael's office with the staff, a hilarious performance of Capital Steps at the Cultural Center, throwing a baby shower, a little trip to Greenville for a fancy birthday dinner for Zach,  a beautiful hike in North Carolina, some "real" Southern BBQ, and a delicious homemade by Kelly birthday dinner #2 for Zach.  Zach also got to spend a whole day at the office with Michael, and then a morning in the OR.  And of course, there was plenty of playtime with cute Kennedy!  So now we have the decision in front of us...is South Carolina where God is calling us to go?  Honestly, at this time, we're not sure.  What we do know is that when the Thomas asked to know the way that Jesus was going, Jesus replied, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."  So in the meantime, by God's grace, we're praying, seeking the One who is the way and trusting God will reveal His will in His perfect time.     

Happy 30th Birthday Zach!

Enjoying some Bigz

Zach's mom and brother came all the way from Abilene

The very patient friends

Nurse McGee performing a comprehensive assessment

 So Friday Oct 15th, we began our usual afternoon commute from Laredo to San Antonio...with many surprises awaiting us. One of them was planned.  We have some sweet friends (thank you Mary Hogan) who had helped organize and were attending a surprise party for Zach's 30th birthday at Bigz Burgers that evening.  The plan was that Zach and I would get into town from Laredo early Friday evening and arrive at Bigz with a whole crew awaiting and ready to celebrate.  That was the plan.  About 15 min into our trip Zach realized he forgot his phone...so back we go to retrieve the phone.  That only put us 30 min behind.  No big deal at this point.  We still had plenty of time.  We were cruising along I-35 N, now at little less than an hour from San Antonio, when all of a sudden traffic stops.  Stops.  Hmmmm...so we wait.  5 minutes.  10 minutes.  15 minutes.  I'm very anxious now.  Zach would describe it as freaking out.  Maybe so.  I'm sending stealth text messages to some friends that are going to the party to let them know what was going on.  People are walking around on the highway.  One truck driver decides to do some push-ups.  We make a friend from Central America.  30 minutes.  We are out of time.  I finally convince Zach to ride up on the shoulder further to see if we could get off.  All the while, he's telling me I need to calm down..."Leah. It's not like we have a party to go to or anything."  Right.  Finally we found an exit to get off the still stationary I-35 and thanks to iphone GPS, were able to backtrack through some random country roads to another 2 lane highway, with our Central American friend following.   We eventually were able to circumnavigate the shut down I-35, and finally make it into San Antonio.  We arrived a Bigz, almost an hour late to a group of very sweet, patient friends, including Zach's mom and brother.  Zach was completely surprised and we had a great evening celebrating his birthday...finally!