Barcelona, suddenly

The night before we drove Mercy and Miah to the Bilbao airport, we got an email from Barcelona - - inviting us to a conference centered on the topic of house churches in Spain; the conference was that approaching weekend.
(apparently, Victor thought that Miguel had invited us,
and Miguel thought that Victor had invited us,
so we never got the original invite).
I didn't really want to go; I had already penned my mental weekend to-do list; and it was long.

But we couldn't miss it - - we have so few opportunities to engage with Spaniards risking themselves to break away from Spanish Christian tradition as they have always known it;
we knew we had to be there;
we know we had to go.

I spent the next twenty four hours washing all the clothes I had stuffed in my hamper and ignored for the ten days that Mercy and Miah were here (I had more important things to do than wash clothes!)

and so 36 hours after we received that first email, we, and our clean clothes, were packed into the car - - driving down to Barcelona.

and Barcelona? well, we had a good time.
we listened,
we talked,
we questioned,
we tried to get other daring conference members to share meals with our crazy, lovely family.
we took our kids down to the Mediteranian sea one night; Joshua and Malachai ran down in the freezing dark to touch it; Josu prefered to stay back from the roaring, black water and opted for sifting through the sand; he found a baby sea turtle shell (although Joshua thinks it was an apricot pit, but, whatever).
we saw a running club run by and I payed my kids ten cents each to cheer them on (I'm totally into supporting local runners, you know?)
I'm glad we went,
(and now I'm glad to be home)