301 to 350

301. For "miss mommy bites" . . . mosquito bites on Hanna that she named "miss mommy bites."

302. The sound of my children's voices.

303. Hearing Jon call me "baby" for the first time in 8 days.

304. Hearing Lydia say, "I've got four bars." (meaning our cell phones had service after 8 days of not).

305. For the sound of my mama's voice.

306. For all of those who loved on my children and family while I was gone.

307. For those who lifted me, my family, our team, and the Guyanese up in prayer during our trip.

308. For many, many opportunities to share the Gospel. . . starting at the Atlanta airport waiting to leave.

309. For seeing what "trumping people with love" looks like.

310. For the flood of text messages that came into my cell phone once I turned it on when hitting U.S. soil.

311. For my daily "I love you texts" from Jon even though I was thousands of miles away and unable to get them everyday.

312. For knowing I was missed.

313. For the Guyanese children.

314. For the tears that flooded both my heart and my face all week.

315. For being broken.

316. For the power of prayer.

317. For the opportunity to see spiritual warfare. . . literally. . . with my very own eyes.

318. For a precious welcome home party. . . complete with chocolate cake, a kitchen timer, new pot holders, a candle, "to go" coffee mugs, a clean house, and even clean bed linens (Jon knows how I love the smell of fresh sheets).

319. For the opportunity to go and tell.

320. For a piece of my heart that was left with the Guyanese.

321. For the many gifts and cards the Guyanese children gave me.

322. For the family of God.

323. For hearing Jenn. G's voice when I answered the phone in Guyana . . . so very nice and soothing to hear a familiar voice from home.

324. For Angela checking on Melissa.

325. For Faith loving my kids like her very own.

326. For the Scriptures Jenn B. sent with me to Guyana. . . she will never know how much I clung to them.

327. For the sweet notes Jenn B. had my children write to me and hide in my suitcase.

328. For new friendships.

329. For all the many things the Lord taught me that I'm still trying to process through.

330. For hearing Melissa's voice after we landed in Miami and her making me laugh.

331. For Pastor Andy and Kathleen and all that they are doing to spread the Gospel and disciple the people of Guyana. . . so amazing to see a modern-day Paul at work.

332. For realizing American is one of the greatest mission fields there is.

333. For love. . . because at the end of the day that's what it is all about. . . loving God and loving others.

334. For playing phone tag with Kristen. . . it seems to be our favorite game :)

335. For hugs and kisses from my children.

336. For Alec come laying his head on my shoulder telling me he was glad I was home and he missed me.

337. For Ashley's hugs and enthusiasm.

338. For Hanna's kiss on the lips.

339. For the smell of Jon.

340. For Jon's arms around me.

341. For cuddling up so close to Jon the last 2 nights.

342. For grace.

343. For being known as the "mushiest team" Andy and Kathleen has ever had in their home. . . the fact that our families called us and we talked about our families was rare to them.

344. For being from the South.

345. For being flooded with flowers from the children. Pastor Andy told us they had never given any team as many flowers as they gave ours.

346. For Christ living in us that allows us to be a good example and shine forth His light. A Guyanese woman told Renee, "We are watching you from the USA. We see how you are loving on our children."

347. For seeing the Guyanese women serve us joyfully and without complaint.

348. For being apart of Team USA Gospel Singers. . . it gave us so many good giggles and chuckles.

349. For seeing the hand of God move.

350. For (hopefully) never being the same and changed forever.

Same Kind of Different As Me

My sweet friend, Bethany, has a GREAT book review blog. She and her hubby are in a contest over who can read the most books in a year. . . sounds fun, doesn't it? I'm pulling hard for her for the win. Anyhoo. . . when she asked me to be a guest blogger, I was thrilled!!!!! I've read "Same Kind of Different as Me" TWICE!!! Head over there and check out my review. While you're through have a cup of coffee or hot tea and visit for awhile. . . check out her other book reviews. They are great. . . but don't just take my word for it. . . go see for yourself. Oh, and I know she'd be thrilled if you left her a comment.

Leading Up

Well in just a little over a week I will be heading out of the country for my first mission trip. I'm experiencing a ray of emotions, and I could probably blog about something different everyday. I believe this is normal. . . or at least I hope it is.

Tonight, however, my sweet Ashley broke down. It was just she and I in the kitchen and she looks at me with those big blue eyes and big, gully-washer tears just flowing from her face, "I don't want you to go."

Oh, how my mama's heart tugs and tears at me. I really wanted to cry with her. I almost did. But, I knew I needed to be strong for her and reassure her. I was telling her all the things I've been telling myself when I think about missing my family so.very.much!!!

• "It's a little over a week out of the whole year. That's nothing in the scheme of things."


• "You'll be so busy you won't have time to miss me."


• "It will be so amazing to tell of all the Lord is going to do through this trip."


• "This will pave the way for our whole family to go one day."

My sweet one just sobbed and sobbed. . . I don't think I will ever forget her big eyes and big tears, telling me how close she is to me, and she doesn't want me to go, she doesn't want to miss me.

This is different, different from anything or anywhere I've been before. I tried to remind her of when Jon and I were in Nevada. . . and she did fine with that. . . that it's really no different. She knows, and I know. . . it is totally different.

To be continued. . .

Peachtree Road Race

What a fun race we had running the Peachtree. It's funny when you're a runner and people ask you if you've ever run the Peachtree and you say, "No". It is only the largest 10K in the WORLD. Yep, you read that right. . . the WORLD. . . . a whopping 60,000 people in this little shin-dig called a race :)

I finished in 52:00 on the nose. Makes me a little sick I didn't run just a second faster to be in the 51's. Oh well. I didn't do as well as I did on my last 10K, but this was a harder course, and it was much, much hotter. Out of 60,000 people I finished 4,665th. I'm pretty excited about that!!!! Jon's time was 49:36 and he finished 3224th overall.

And. . . to boot, we had a great crew of friends with us!

Jenn and Tripp. . . this was Jenn's 3rd year running it.


Angela and Doug . . . both newbies.

Ang and David. . . They've run this thing a good bit.

Steve and Faith. . . newbies too. Steve was so sweet to join Faith. I know it meant so much to her.

Me and my love. . .

Jenn S. and Becky

The whole group before the race.

Saw this shirt and LOVED it!!!! That's how I like my hashbrowns.

Okay. . . so here are some of my favorite things about the race. .

• Corral A-C had guards blocking the gate that were checking your race number to make sure you could be in these corrals. I was in corral B, Jon and Doug in A, and Angela H. in C. After walking through the gates I looked at Angela H and said, "Man, I feel pretty special."


• This wasn't a favorite, but I was really embarrassed. I opened the door on a man in the port-a-potty. Mortified I tell you. . .totally mortified.


• I got one of the Moe's shirts they were throwing out. It actually looks better than the Peachtree shirts. I gave it to Jon. He'll wear it much more than I will.


• The ice cold towels after we ran.


• Going to Trader Joes while waiting on the rest of our crew to finish.


• Sitting around, hanging out, and goofing off while waiting on our friends.


• Matching my sweet friends with our tie-dyed shirts.


• Going to the Expo with Ang and David and eating Varsity.


• Going to the Missing Person tent and telling them, "I think I'm missing. My friends said to meet them under the "H". Where's the H?


• Laughing. . . cause I always love me some laughing!
  

Here's Piedmont Park after we finished the race.

Doug and David

Angela L, Jenn S, and Jenn B.

Becky and Ang. L

Jon and Ang. H.

More hanging out and goofing off.

Congratulating Tripp on finishing.

Jenn being such a sweet and supportive wife. See her cold towel on his neck? We all wore our red hats. . . I just love these girls so much!

Our crew after the race. . .

Blueberry Picking

Here are some photos from our blueberry picking last Saturday.

And this is what happens when you can't wait to dive into all that you've worked hard to pick. . .

Flashback Friday - Character Counts Race

This was the 2nd year this race has taken place. I actually ran it back in the fall. Shelby and some other kiddos from running club ran this one as well.

Alec giving a pep talk.

Here's me and my girl Shelby having a little pre-race chat. . .

I'm not sure who this is or why I loaded the picture. . . must have been important to me when I was going to blog about it. Maybe it's Shelby?

Here I is. . . huffin' and puffin'. I was trying to beat our soccer friend, Eddie.

Alec and Joel running hard.

Here I am sprinting to the finish. I passed Eddie and was so happy!!!!

Here I am walking with Alec. He was so mad because his knees were hurting, so he had to walk a good part of it.

Good job, Jesse!

Good job, Joel!!!!

Good job Shelby!!!!!

Here's our running club friends and dear friends all around period!

Alec and Jesse

I won first female to cross the finish line. This is the 2nd year I've done this at this race.