Jeff and I flew in to Colorado on September 13th. This was a very big week for us. We had dinner on the night of September 13th with Steve Cobb, the President of WaterBrook; and Don Jacobson, the outgoing President of Multnomah.
The dinner was an off the record meeting and chance to meet this new man who is the President of the new publishing company that we are going to be working with. It was both a terrific dinner and terrific meeting. Steve Cobb is a good guy, and as sad as I am to be leaving the previous Multnomah family, I was very glad to connect with Steve so well.
The next day on the 14th, Jeff and I attended a day long meeting at the WaterBrook offices in Colorado Springs. We spent the whole day in their conference room with this giant floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the start of the Colorado Rockies mountain range. Colorado Springs is on the plain where the Colorado Rockies start, so the whole city looks up at this majestic mountain range and it was framed beautifully by the WaterBrook conference room window.
During our day there, we met the entire leadership team at WaterBrook. They seemed like a terrific group of people and we were really looking forward to meeting with them. We had a good strategy session about the years to come. After all the meetings were done, as I left I realized that God was really convincing me of something. Over the past few months, since the news came about Multnomah being sold to Random House, I have been struggling with a lot of feelings of resentment, anger, and sadness over losing the family that I had built up over the last eight years at Multnomah. During these meetings at WaterBrook, I really felt like God was convincing me to stop holding on to that sadness, and be willing to let it go and look to the future that He was holding out to me to start with this new company. I also felt Him telling me to be willing to look at the positive, to be willing to think on whatever was lovely, and right, and excellent, and worthy of praise. I really felt convinced that it was time to stop saying, ‘Yes, I am sure WaterBrook is fine’, and instead be willing to say, ‘Yes, WaterBrook looks fantastic and I am looking forward to working with them’. So, it was a good day of meetings, and I think a good transition for me stopping my sadness and willing to look forward.
The next day, the 15th, was a day we had been looking forward to for a long time. Jeff and I went to ‘Focus on the Family’ to record a bunch of different ‘Focus on the Family’ shows including the main, daily broadcast with Dr. Dobson. Just a year before, when I had recorded ‘Focus on the Family’ on ‘For Women Only’, we were talking about ‘For Men Only’ this time like we had the year before, Dr. Dobson ended up recording three shows, which is very unusual. It takes a while to produce it, so it will probably air in the first quarter of 2007; that’s the current guess anyway.
We had a good time in Colorado- we got to see some friends who lived in Colorado Springs who we only get to see when we are out there. We had a chance to have some very important meetings. And then finally, Jeff and I ended up spending an extra day in Colorado Springs to celebrate our anniversary. We drove up into the mountains 
and went to Mueller State Park. We took our book and did a short hike up high on the mountainside and sat overlooking a lake and read our book in the sunshine. Later we came down the mountain, had a great lunch and meant to make it back into Colorado Springs in time to see the second half of the Michigan/Notre Dame football game. Jeff is a huge Michigan fan so, given the fact, that day was pretty much perfect in every way. The next day, we flew home to be with our sweet kids after being away for almost five days.