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

STOLEN ONE BUCKET LIST!!!

My bucket list was stolen!

It appears my bucket list was switched with someone else's. This other crazy person seems to have had doing a half marathon on her list. She must be someone much younger than I am. She has to be in much better physical condition than I am. She must have very different priorities than I do. Seriously, who has running on their list? Who could undervalue their knees like that? She deffinately didnt have "learning how to crochet a granny square on her list" like I did. I bet she eats tofu hotdogs and drinks green smoothies. She is probably not addicted to candy... like I might be.....if I was inclined to like that sort of thing.

Upon further thinking maybe she decided to do this race for a really good reason. Maybe it was in memory of a friend who died young of a terrible disease. Maybe that moved her off the comfy sofa watching Downton Abbey into the gym. Maybe she was eager to connect with a family she loved. What if she had lots of special memories of this family. Memories of lots of sisters of which she had none in her family. A family that always included her in their travels and life stuff while she was growing up. Maybe there was even one really special sister that became her friend during those horrible high school years. What if that sister became her roommate in college and the maid of honor at her wedding? What if one married and raised her family of three daughters on the sunny west coast and the other lived and raised her family of three daughters in the northern forested midwest and they hadn't seen each other in years? Could any of that be reason enough to change a bucket list?

It can. It did. It's tomorrow.

 

Showering With Strangers

                          

Things really aren't as radical as they appear. Sorry if that disappoints.  And if it does, just maybe some  self evaluation might be in order.    

We arrived home from Athens-New York- Chicago on Friday night. Which means a long trip home became even longer. Thank you New York...which will never be a connection point for me again in my life, not if I can help it.  Home at last. 

Saturday we emptied the suitcases.  Forty four pounds worth.  I would have been just as happy to burn them and their contents after living, lugging and seeing the same clothes  over and over again for the last three weeks but I washed it all and then dug through the tower of mail.  

I  repacked  a bag and left at 7am on Sunday for Caroline's bridal shower in Minneapolis. And that was waiting a few hours since I had been awake since three am.  I kept saying to myself, "am I really doing this?" followed by " is driving with 3 hours of sleep  a bad idea?" I never answered myself, which is good because that may be my fast pass ticket to the special "home." 

I  realized that I don't want to miss any event that is part of the preparations and anticipation of the wedding. I  really wanted to go.  Not wanting to miss anything is definitely a running theme in my life. And probably why my house is in the condition it is in.  Well, that and the perpetual artsy crafty messy issues among other things but I digress. Somedays I miss having the kids around to blame for this type of thing. 

The pastor's wives of Bethlehem Baptist church presented Caroline with a beautiful luncheon, sharing of memories, games, recipes, a thoughtful devotional and an abundance of gifts.  It was really overwhelming for me to see these wonderful women share so much for a young bride that they don't even know.  It was apparent how much they love Michael and his family.  No one could say enough nice things about both. It was clear how precious the relationships were among the church family that was at the shower to celebrate. Several of the women who lived close to the church even offered their home kitchens for me to use for wedding food preparation. I left the shower rather overwhelmed by the tender love that was exhibited and no longer were any of these ladies strangers.  Now they were "friends."   What a lucky girl Caroline is to be welcomed into such an amazing and  loving family with such special, supportive and generous friends.  

I am sure glad I made the drive :) 

Caroline and her new sisters.

  

A little friend with Caroline's new youngest sister.

                                                                                    

The spoon doll was received with a bit of a shock.

                                        

Mom sandwich.

An Amazing Mother's Day

  Since my geographically closest child lives in the cities I went there for Mother's day.  (Actually, I went for several reasons but the location part remains true) and  I was treated to heart shaped pancakes for breakfast as we planned our day.

We decided to go to Piper's downtown campus for church and then head to the Guthrie and pick up "rush" tickets for "Midsummer Night's Dream."  That has been one of our favorite plays from school days.  I think the kids can all still remember their lines.

Everything goes as planned.  We wait in line....a slow going line that inches up every few minutes.  The three of us enjoy visiting as we wait.  After about 20 minutes a woman comes up to us and asks if we are here for Mother's day.  We are a bit startled at the question and look at her with one of those tilted head pauses while we replay the question in our heads.  "Yes," we  answer.  We are here for mother's day.  It is then I notice a young boy in a t-shirt behind her. He is slowly inching his way backward away from all of us  as he steps in retreat.  

The woman then reveals in her hand a long chain of tickets.  As she unfolds them she tells us, "I was coming here with my sister and mother for Mother's day.  My mom died a few months ago.  My sister and I just can't go without her.  We are still too sad.  Will you please take these tickets and enjoy the show?  Think of Elaine."  We are speechless.  We girls then burst into tears and give her a hug and thank her. We tell her how sorry we are and then thank her again. In a moment we see her walk out the door with the young boy running to catch up behind her.  She never looked back.

We stood frozen for a few moments and then looked down at the tickets.  The tickets were main floor, $54.00 each.  We realize she must have watched the line for some time to choose a group of three to give the tickets to.  We realize she had to come down to the theater to give them to someone.  We realize she could have just let them sit unused.  We realize she could have turned them back into the box office.  We realize she blessed us through her sadness and tragedy.  How amazing is that.  

It was a great show.  Our seats were wonderful.  Thank you sweet lady.  I hope I never forget what gift you shared with us that day.  It was so much more than the tickets.