The day after I got back from New York, Jeff and I took one of our first family trips to a speaking engagement under our new system. A year ago, we had realized that we needed to start prioritizing speaking engagements, where Jeff and I spoke together and could bring the children and a nanny with us.
Too often in the past when we have brought the children on our speaking engagements, they have been stuck in a church nursery somewhere probably with a very sweet volunteer looking after them, but still stuck in a nursery all day, which is obviously not really that much fun for them. So, we realized that we needed to start traveling with the children and a nanny; even though it’s more expensive for us, it’s very worth it in terms of our family priorities. So, we loaded our nanny Keri and the children up on the flight and flew out to Seattle, and it all worked beautifully. We had a lot of work to do on the airplane because we’re on the “For Young Men Only” books deadline. So, Keri entertained the kids, and we got a lot of work done. And then we were able to spend some time in downtown Seattle on Friday evening before heading to the suburb of Puyallup and doing our marriage conference the next day, and doing a pastoral interview on Sunday.
Oddly enough, my friend and co-author Lisa Rise had a speaking engagement in the Seattle area as well that turned out to not only be within ten miles of the one where we were, but our two event sponsors put us up in the same hotel. So, without planning it, we ended up not only on the same flight, but at the same hotel, and such opportunities are too good to miss. So, on Saturday evening after our marriage conference was done, and the kids were in bed since of course they were on Eastern Time, Jeff and Lisa and I headed into downtown Seattle to have dinner on the Waterfront, and that was tremendous. It is rare that Jeff and I get to go out, much less with the friends, because when we are at home, we don’t want to leave the children for an evening since we’re gone already too much.
So, this was a treat to have Keri with the kids, and us be able to go enjoy an evening out with a good friend. The Church itself was just tremendous. The Pastor Dave was somebody that both Jeff and I really wished that we could hang out with more; that is one of the hardest things about traveling so much and meeting so many people that you then have to say goodbye to. We really enjoyed also one of his key leaders, Cathy, who was not only tremendous at putting together a terrific event and keeping all the balls in the air, but she was also, it turns out, amused with the kids; and the kids just loved her.
So, all in all, it was a great weekend, and a great start to our new system of traveling as a family. Now, of course, as our friends know, Keri is having to transition out of the nanny and personal assistant role that she has been in for the last two years as she is having to get a fulltime job, and this is only a part-time position. So now we are praying for the Lord to bring us a wonderful new nanny for the kids, and personal assistant for me.