You KNOW its big when a blog starts with a woman (me..yikes) admitting her AGE!!!!

Well there is a first time for everything.  And this is one of them.

In June of this year I will turn 55.  That's a lot of years. In my twenties I thought that 50 was ancient! Approaching this milestone has made me realize that I need to look ahead and make conscious choices about what I do and how I spend my time. I decided this year I will try to say "yes" to as much as is possible.  Even if what I am saying "yes" to is way outside my comfort zone.  It's now or never with many things. At my age, I know that life can change in an instant. So it's now!

What have I said "yes" to so far this year? Well, it's only February, but I've already said yes to two big things. First, last week I participated in a half marathon. Don't be impressed, I only ran a little bit of it. But I made it the whole 13.1 miles, in honor of a friend who died of a mitochondrial disease at age 43. I ran with her sisters and friends to raise money for research on the disease, and it was a difficult and wonderful and memory-making experience. My blisters have blisters, but I'm glad I said "yes!"

 The second thing I said "yes" to is an even greater leap into the unknown for me. On March 9 I will be traveling to Ethiopia on a Mission Trip with a group of women from our community. It will be challenging in many ways. The flight itself takes over 24 hours, I've had to get lots of shots and will be on Malaria medication during the trip (where the instructions say "if you throw up the first pill be sure to take a second within the hour" yeah. I think this explains why I recently found a half bottle of unused Marlaria meds from Caitlyns trip...whats a mother to do? Glad I didn't know that then), food and water will be questionable, and there is significant land travel to outlying areas once we are there. We have to bring all our own supplies from the states. Rumor has it we will even be bringing live goats with us for a meal in a remote area. Yes, this is well out of my comfort zone.

I hemmed and hawed about whether to go (I've never done anything like this trip before!) but finally, after a lot of prayer and discussion, said "yes." The very next day Paul and I got word that the pipes froze in our house while we were away.  Imagine that timing!  Had I known that a day earlier I would not have made the decision to go.    

 What We'll Be DoingIn Ethiopia, the team and I will be visiting orphanages and care points to provide aid. We will also have the privilege of teaching and playing with these precious children. We are going to serve and give special attention to the children and women.  We will spend time a site of "at risk" girls who are too old for the orphanage and need skills to be able to support themselves so they don't end up on the streets. We will go to the city of Korah, a leper colony which is a trash dump that has 100,000 people and children living with HIV and aids. No one goes there because they think these people are cursed and unimportant. A great four minute video on Korah ishttp://youtu.be/f4pgQvgdNqs.  We will also  visit the Princess Tsehai Hospital that provides surgery for women suffering from fistulas.  A fistula is a condition caused by childbirth in developing nations that makes women into outcasts. Women suffering from fistulas are ostracized by their families, divorced by their husbands and forced to live alone where others won't have to smell them.  The hospital we will visit has provided corrective surgeries since 1962 (usually costing around $300) that give women their lives back. It is documented in a wonderful PBS special, called "A Walk to Beautiful." You can find here if you are interested. http://video.pbs.org/video/980049841 The New York Times calls Dr. Catherine Hamlin,  and author of "The Hospital by the River, a Story of Hope"  "the new Mother Teresa of our age" for what she has done through  her and her husbands life work performing surgery and spending her life helping the Ethiopian women.

Ethiopia has been of interest to me since 2006 when my daughter Caitlyn spent a summer working in an orphanage in Addis Ababa. Her experiences from that trip touched my heart. I look forward to meeting some of the people and experiencing what she saw during her time there (except for the part about ringworm.) 

In addition, our family has also been supporting a child in Ethiopia through Compassion International for many years. I have been getting letters and pictures from our daughter there for a long time. It has been a wonderful exchange and we so enjoyed it we are now adopting several more children that I look forward to meeting on this trip! Paul finally gets some boys in the family!!

How You Can HelpPlease pray for us! We will need every prayer. As I said earlier, this is far out of my comfort zone, but I felt God's tug, so I am going. Pray for safety for us; pray that the work we do would encourage the children and the workers; pray that through us these orphanages would be blessed. Pray that we would be able to listen to God's leading and participate in his work throughout the trip and remain healthy.

In addition to your prayers, you can support the team in the following ways:

1) Support a child. (this little cutie pie is still available for adoption :))

The organization we are traveling with is called Childrens Hope Chest and they provide opportunities to sponsor orphans in many countries.  The monthly commitment to sponsor a child is $34.00. You and your child can exchange letters and photos. The really cool thing about CHC is that since we are personally visiting these sites we can meet your child and establish a connection for you. If you are interested in "adopting" a son or daughter for your family, I would gladly make that connection for you, if possible, deliver whatever you would like, and photograph the meeting.  You can choose your child from the Chapa care point yourself by going here: http://www.hopechest.org/sponsor-a-child/<http://www.hopechest.org/sponsor-a-child/> Here are a few pictures of my grand daughter Aleah and her mommy choosing her new big sister.  I am bringing her their "heart" and a headband we made for her.

2) Support our trip financially. If you'd like (and really, no pressure at all!), you can support us with a tax deductible gift through the Children's Hope Chest at www.hopechest.org <http://www.hopechest.org/> . Here you can select "GIVE" and complete the form with Reference #ET130302T and "Barb Belcher" in the "Notes" section.
I will be blogging about the trip while I am there. If you want to follow our travels, check out http://northbynorthwoodz.blogspot.com<http://northbynorthwoodz.blogspot.com/> . I hope to post as often as I can.
Thank you for your love, prayers, and support. I'm nervous, but excited, too.

Love from the northwoods (and soon from eastern Africa!),Barb"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. " James 1:27