As I have been slowly, but surely spreading the word about my newest adventure I keep hearing the same question over and over again …
Are you excited?
And truthfully, I never know how to respond. I have such a wide range of emotions when I think about the Race, I don’t know how to properly answer people. I know that no matter how hard I try to prepare, I won’t be ready. I know this next year is going to be the toughest, most challenging yet most rewarding year of my life. I know I will have to sacrifice a lot of myself and a lot of my worldly wants on the Race. I know Jesus is going to do incredible things, but that means I have to let go of all my “wants” and surrender to His will.
Whenever people ask me that question I think of a hundred different ways to answer them:
“Who wouldn’t be excited to travel the world? Of course I’m excited!”
I think about training camp and how excited I am to meet my squad and my teammates.
I think about all God has in store for the Kingdom through my team while we are on the Race, of course I’m excited for that.
Yes, yes, yes I’m excited! I’m ecstatic about the thought of uncovering and discovering all that 2016 has in store for me. But as I think about all I’m excited for, thoughts of things I’m not-so excited for come up too …
I’m not excited about going 11 months without seeing my parents.
I’m not excited about the fact that I have to downsize my life to one tent and a 50 pound back-pack.
I don’t get excited when I think of not having A/C for the next year.
Or that my wardrobe will be about 10 items deep.
I’m definitely not excited about missing out on family events; birthdays, Christmas parties, Thanksgiving dinners and 4th of July fish fry’s.
I can’t even stand the fact that I will be missing camp for the first time in six years. (I cannot tell you how many times I have shed tears over this one.)
I’m not excited about getting homesick when I’m thousands of miles away from my family.
… … (thoughts on thoughts on thoughts on thoughts) … …
So yes, absolutely – I’m totally stoked for the Race. I can’t wait to travel and see the world but at the same time I know that my “yes” to the Race means a lot of other “no’s” for 2016. Do I regret my yes? No way, not even a little. This is just me, processing out loud as I prepare for best, yet most challenging year of my life!
As always, thanks for listening. I love you guys.
♥ ♥ ♥
-V
Side note: I’ve really been missin my little Ugandan babes the last couple of days. How can you not just completely love these little kiddos to pieces?? If you’ve got some extra time this week, I’d love it if you could send a couple prayers their way.
You guys are awesome.
