One month later...

I apologize for taking an extended period of time to add my post to the blog, but after reading Emily’s, I was speechless. Her thoughts and experiences were so similar to my own and described so clearly and powerfully, I thought “How can I possibly add to that?!” That said, I’d like to begin my post with the standard line used in shows and movies by the less articulate friend or sidekick, “Yeah. What she said…”
But I would like to add just a couple more personal thoughts:
When this began I didn’t realize the amount of time we would have to put in to make it happen. While there was something deeper, the basic, more simplistic view amounted to me figuring that if I was going to be training anyway, why not do it for a good cause? Trying to fit training into an already busy life was difficult. Then, in an attempt to get more people interested I asked Emily if she’d like to be a co-conspirator in this little endeavor. Why not make it a race? Let’s make a movie. A flier? Gotta post them everywhere. Promote here? There too. The idea grew, and so did the time commitment. On and on it went…
It was much more than I had originally envisioned, both good and bad. Any mother with three small children can attest to the lack of free time one has in this position! Little kids think they need their mothers ALL THE TIME. And the truth is, as hard as I tried to do it all, the last couple of months leading up to the race I was often distracted or unavailable. While the extra time with Daddy was special for them, it was hard for me to be away. It was hard for them. But the blessing is that they knew what I was working on. During one of Lia’s more impatient moments, Brayden said to her, “Mommy has to do this to help feed the hungry kids.” Every time I ran in the rain and every time I came in dripping sweat they saw this. I smiled a lot, but they also saw me cry a time or two. There were ice packs, and often an empty chair at the dinner table. And finally, after waiting for over 3 hours, they saw me cross a finish line with hundreds of people watching. They saw me be more than just “regular Mom”. I was even more then “triathlete Mom”. The kids played "racing" all day after that. They made "Go Mom" and "Go Emily" signs. And now, they see me collecting checks for Pastor Isaac and hear the suprise and pleasure in my voice with every new tally because people have repeatedly sent in even more than what they had pledged. They hear we're over $2000 and that is a lot of money. But to a child, that number sounds gargantuan and to know it was freely given to help another!
God led Emily and I on this path for a lot of reasons. You all know of the main goal of helping Pastor Isaac provide for his family, but I saw so much more come out of all of this. I think the one blessing that is the most personal and dear to my heart though, is the opportunity this gave my children to see the work, the determination, the purpose and the prayer that ultimately was for the good of some children we don't personally know. We talk at our house often of showing God's love to other through our actions. While we always try to be an example for our kids, I think sometimes they can confuse common manners with small actions of goodness and honor because there is no struggle to do what is right. They saw the struggle; they saw the triumph. I feel my family has received a richness through this experience that has nothing to do with money. HIS HAND IS TRULY IN EVERYTHING. HIS WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS BUT HIS GRACE AND LOVE IS INFINITE!