Our Journey to Africa




i'm doing a Bible study right now on the Proverbs 31 woman.
it's got me doing all sorts of stuff, 
like getting up earlier than my usual early,
and challenging me to think about how I'm 
{looking well to the ways of my household}.

the study has mentioned the {dream} we may have for our lives -
whether it's starting a business or writing a book or a blog or even being a mom,
and how sometimes, 
these hopes and dreams for our future?
they may just be fun ideas,
but sometimes?
they're dreams the Lord has softly spoken to us.

the dream my husband and I are walking now?
the Lord began whispering it deep inside my heart just about 4 years ago right now.

--
{4 years ago}

i sunk into the corner of our couch,
ready to nurse a brand-new-gracie.
as I settled in to feed my sweet baby girl,
my laptop balanced on the arm of our couch,
so i could browse online during the better part of the evening
 that it would take to get our new baby girl fed, swaddled, rocked and shushed to sleep.

i scrolled facebook,
seeing funny anecdotes from friends,
what people were eating for supper,
and the standard Starbucks drink photo.

and sitting there on our tan micro-fiber couch,
holding my newborn baby,
my heart paused.

i saw pictures from an old college friend.

pictures like this



and this.


I read her blog.
she was in a small country in East Africa,
adopting their first young-toddler boy.

she asked for prayer for her journey,
and a specific prayer request -
someone to go with her for the few weeks that she'd have to travel.

and something began stirring in my heart.
i could go!! i'll go! i'll go!!!!!!
i thought over and over again.
i could take a 4-month-old baby to a impoverished country in Africa, right?
or leave her here, and pump on the airplane and in Africa every 2 hours for 2 weeks, right?

i wanted desperately to go with her.



{i needed to go}.


-----


it would take a few years,
and then a few years more,
but i would go.

oh, how i would go!





to be continued.








Kindergarten Graduation




it happens all too fast,
this growing up stuff.

wasn't it just yesterday that i was excitedly talking with a girlfriend,
announcing our much-waited-for, 
so-anticipated-after-years-of-miscarriage-and-infertility 
pregnancy with Grant?

wasn't it just yesterday that we were rushing to the Operating Room 
for a semi-emergent c-section?
wasn't it just yesterday that he was learning to walk?
learning to sleep in a big boy bed?
learning to peddle his tricycle?
learning to play with green John-Deere tractors?

but then I blinked my eyes.

and this sweet, sweet baby boy of ours,
graduated Kindergarten.

he sang on stage
what can wash away my sin,
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
what can make me whole again?
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

and with some math and language arts and science and geography 
added in over the past 9 months,
just like that,
he's a first-grader.

i'm gonna stop blinking.

our hot, sweaty, but very happy selves after Grant's last day of school,
which ended with a all-school picnic and field day.