Back from Atlanta!

We had such a great time! Despite the flights, my fear of flying and the turbulence on the planes... I took so many photos of really cool things its hard to narrow them down.

This was a very cool moving sidewalk under the tarmac at Chicago Ohare. Seriously! We were moving around under the planes!! Huge airport! Had to ride this one to get from our landing gate to our takeoff gate. We kept checking our gate numbers, because airlines have a way of changing gates without warning. We got to ride this ride twice - because they did change our gate and it was on the other side of the airport.

Loved this dinosaur in the airport too. We spent 4 hours on a layover there... I hate that it wasn't long enough to leave the airport and see more of Chicago - however, it was great if you are a people watcher... and I am!

From Chicago we flew into Atlanta. Rough ride!! I swear the plane dropped and I flew out of my seat. I hate rides at the Stampede so this was no fun for me! Once in Atlanta, we took the "MARTA" to the hotel. We didn't know that Atlanta is close to being the number one crime city in the US. At least that's what their own newspapers say. Thankfully the train took us almost to the front door of the hotel. I will also add that Atlanta had the cleanest subway I've ever been on - and that includes Calgary's! Beautiful city - really, really beautiful!

Have I mentioned the heat! I've never experienced humidity like that before. It was hard to breathe. I loved the air conditioned buildings and spent most of my time indoors.

THIS was the escalator we had to take to get to street level from the train. I swear 4 or 5 stories high - it took a very long time to get to the top. The walls were freaky too. They were parallel to the angle of the escalator and if I looked at them riding up or down, I got dizzy. Turns out we were about 80' to 100' underground. Yikes!

I don't know if this shows up very well, but behind us the whole tunnel was rock that had been carved out for the train. Very cool! I mean very hot... the temperature was hot even that far underground.

This one was at the arts centre stop.











This is just one of the cool views from inside the hotel.

I guess I should mention the actual conference we attended. We were representing our agency at the Foster Family-based Treatment Association (FFTA). We took classes on The Hurting Foster Child, Building Rapport with Adolescents, Conflict Resolution through Trust Building, Behaviors, and FASD Placements and Supports, as well as 3 keynote speakers. All were EXCELLENT and we learned so much! It was great to network with people from Ontario, all over the US, Scotland, Australia, Bermuda and Hong Kong.

I know that I walked away with a completely different perspective on many issues, as many of our presenters had been foster kids at one time. Some fail, some succeed - but that was all dependant on the influence of their foster parents. I hadn't really thought about what happens to these kids after they "age out" - but now we know! We actually felt like we had some insight and experiences that could be shared with others in our workshops. All in all it was very empowering.


We came home with a wealth of information, highly motivated and inspired and ready to take on a new venture... we have decided we want to work toward becoming trainers/presenters ourselves! We want to be the kind of parents and foster parents that influence kids for good. We're already working on our first presentation for our agency that we will give this fall - and we're so excited for this chance!

I've got more pictures - but I'll save them for another day. I'm beat!

Three Things I'm Grateful For -

1. Getting back home safely and being met by my ever-lovin' family at the airport. I'd missed them!
2. The chance at a great education opportunity (for fostering AND diversity) in Atlanta. I almost perfected my Georgia accent while there too.
3. A loving and supportive husband. It was so nice to spend a week with just him.