Eat more Chicken!

This past weekend Doug and I had a weekend getaway. We traveled to Rome! Ha - some of you are wondering Rome, Italy......no, no; only Rome,GA. Home of the Rome Braves, AAA baseball team for the Atlanta braves, too bad no game - since I absolutely love baseball. I have a thing for standing inside the stadiums! To me they are so grand, the lawns are manicured so perfectly, and to hear someone sing our National Anthem inside a baseball stadium just gives me chills. Anyway, back to our weekend! It was a marriage retreat organized by our church that a total of about 15 couples attended. Let me just tell you about the place where we stayed. It was located off Berry Campus about three miles behind the college. The drive, once on campus was absolutely beautiful. There were so many deer to be seen on the short three mile drive back to Winshape. That's the name in case anyone wants to check into using the facilities. Winshape sits on a hill and it is an old dairy barn that Truett Cathy has turned into this facility that allows kids camps in the summers, weekend getaways for Chick-fil-a employees, or such outings as a church marriage retreat. Each barn has been converted to beautiful sleeping rooms. They had to sell a lot of chicken to pay for the interior decorating as well! This is not your average hotel room - I'm talking hardwood floors, wonderful down comforters, and NO TV! The idea is to get alone with your spouse and enjoy each other without interruptions! The food and hospitality is also top notch (and no, we never ate a chicken sandwich). Well our weekend was full of talks from an area minister focusing on LOVED - living our victories every day. It was a Biblical approach to marriage and all that goes with it. I thought the speakers were wonderful. We enjoyed singing with the music of Mike and Carrie Godfrey and his bang up guitar playing! We enjoyed an afternoon of bike riding to an old school and cemetery. I find it interesting how headstones have gotten so big and obnoxious these days compared to those of the late 1800's and early 1900's. We also rode to a really old mill that was used to make grain. The wheel was enormous! The trees were so beautiful - displaying all of God's watercolors.
There are two things that I find most interesting about Winshape. 1) It houses two or three foster homes that Truett Cathy has set up from years back. Each home usually has anywhere from 7-10 children. He is a firm believer in not splitting siblings if it can be helped. A quick read that gives some insight into his life is It's Better to Build Boys Than Mend Men.
2) That on the day our country was being attacked by terrorists, September 11 2001, Truett Cathy was standing on a dairy farm in Rome, GA trying to figure out how to bring peace and love to a few individuals at a time that would one day visit Winshape.