A gift!

Luke recently sponsored a student who wrote and received a grant.  This year, the grant reception was to be held at The Gaylord in Dallas, a beautiful conference center and hotel that we would never actually pay for...  But, we were invited to come along with the student for the award and dinner and a night at The Gaylord!  The kids stayed at the Masons and were absolutely thrilled.  I fretted over the weather coming through, but it ended up being just fine.  We got in midday, Luke and his student went and stood by her poster to answer questions all afternoon.  I wandered the hotel, read on the balcony, watched Ellen, and just relaxed in our beautiful room!  At 5, Luke came back and we got ready for the reception.  We had tasty appetizers and got to hear from all 6 grant recipients.  The grants all involved service, so it was neat to see these young people with big vision and big hearts to love others in action.

We didn't know if we would be invited to dinner or not.   Afterall, Luke didn't do much to earn this grant, and I did nothing!  But, the grant guy welcomed us and ushered about 20 of us downstairs to a lovely steakhouse where we all had an incredible meal.  We sat around one giant table, drank wine, ate amazing seafood towers (oysters, shrimp, crab legs), incredible steaks, and awesome dessert.  Such a grace!!  The next morning, we took a walk and then enjoyed a breakfast buffet by the indoor "River walk".  The kids were full of stories of all the fun they'd had with Caroline, William, and Christopher and we were refreshed and blessed!  What a gift!

Inside the atrium - 

From our balcony!  Academia has some perks every once in a while!