CHEA

My first CHEA experience was last year. I met up with Deeds and she took me around the great Exhibition Hall where are the vendors were selling their products. Wow! That was overwhelming, but it was nice to have an experienced mom at my side.

This year it was all me. I saw people I knew, even hung out with some cool couples. This year I made it to two encouraging and informative speakers. After lunch, I decided to tackle the Exhibition Hall all by my lonesome. It was good, a little overwhelming and ooh so tempting.

I was so tempted to buy all four Carmen Sandiego games. If only I knew an eight-year-old boy. I thought about buying it for the future, but I resisted. They had this cute little airplane and thought about it as a Christmas present, but I walked away and said I’d come back. When I came back the vendor’s area was so busy I couldn’t ask any questions so I took that as God’s sign that Jory didn’t need it.

I think I didn’t know the right questions to ask at Sonlight though I thought I did. I left their booth still feeling unsettled by things. I moved on to Math-U-See. That was a lot easier, even if the worker wasn’t very helpful or friendly. I walked around, looking, then I came upon the Doorpost both just as the worker was talking about a book they sold. The book looked overwhelming to both me and the woman who was getting the sales pitch. But the mini-posters about having good attitudes and being helpful around the house and how to settle a dispute with your brother, appealed to both of us. So when the house is finished, I will have posters to put on doors that we can go to when we misbehave or behave splendidly.

After all my walking around and not being able to find the Abeka, which I know I saw earlier, I decided it was time to head home. I passed a man who stopped me and asked me if I knew where CHEA was. I pointed him in the right direction, which then led him to ask me, “Did I know what was happening in the world?” I’m such a sucker for older people who want to talk at times. I don’t know a polite way to get away. So for the next fifteen to twenty minutes, I heard about how all the media is lying to us and what the government is slowly morphing into. Trust me, in his opinion the country is going to hell in a hand basket.

I didn’t share with Him my thoughts which are: 1. God is in control; and 2. we asked for this, our ancestors those brilliant, fun loving Israelites were like, “Oh come on, God, why can’t we have a king like those heathens have? Why can’t we have another sinner rule over us? Come on, God, don’t be a hater.” God gave us what we wanted and here we are.

So that was CHEA, hopefully next year I’ll have a friend with me and a better understanding of how it all works, and what I need.