Staff Meetings

I spend my Friday morning at the Bethany Corporate Office in the big city of Grand Rapids. I worked in this office for many years and it is always great to go back and visit, especially the international team. Because they are "International" I even got a few check kisses and an African shoulder bump hand shake/hug. A few co-workers mentioned they enjoyed reading my blog while I was in Ethiopia and I mentioned it was much harder to blog now that I was back State side, but since I was about to enter a "very exciting meeting", I am sure I would have something to blog about tonight.

Here is the thing about meetings. I do not like formality. I am not about "yeahs and neahs" or 2nding motions and other such things. I like to tip my chair back on two legs and, if possible, put my feet up. I also like to have my lap top out to look like I am taking minutes, but really I can be writing reports I am behind in or putting presentations together.

But not today... My chair was the untippable type and my lap top had a dead battery. So I really could focus on the work at hand. Forms, policies, $$$$, good meeting topics.

The best part of this meeting was not that Sarah made muffins (although that was very nice) or that Kathleen brought in extra diet coke (which is also very nice), but when we got on a tangent and started sharing our miracle stories. How many kids have been given a horrible diagnosis and been labeled "unadoptable" only to be later adopted and thriving in their home. Or how a random person sees a random picture of a child we are trying to place and says "that is my child" and calls us. Or how over a dozen Haitian children survive and earth quake, get the US government to change their laws for them to come home and the biggest issue at hand seem to be parasites...

It is not Ethiopia, but it sure is 2nd best!!!!