Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to be a mommy. When my sister was born, I was given a water baby and whatever my sister needed, my baby needed to. I would feed her, rock her, and play with her as if she was a real baby. I started babysitting when I was about 11 years old. My mom was always right down the street a couple houses away but I felt like I was taking care of things. This was who I was. I always had babysitting gigs lined up, I worked in the church nursery, and I loved it! Coming on the race, I hoped to work with kids a lot. I didn’t care if it was teaching English, working at daycares, or being in orphanages, I wanted to be around babies. I have had the opportunity to work with kids in Guatemala, Cambodia, and now in Swaziland. I have fallen in love with kids around the world but I met one this week who was different. I call him Timmy. Timmy is 4 years old and when I first met him, he had blue marker all over his mouth as if he had been eating it. His clothes had holes all over them and his hair was dirty. As I was walking towards the playground, he jumped into my arms and he stole my heart right away. The last few days, we have played together, sang songs together (his favorite song is This Little Light of Mine), and just loved each other. He even calls me mom and says to me “I’m your baby”. There have been many times on the race where I have felt like God is calling me to be a mom down the road and he is giving me a lot of kids to love in the meantime. The fun thing about this is I get to see my momma in a few days! She is coming out to Africa for the Parent Vision Trip. My mom hates the outdoors, she hates bugs, and she doesn’t like to sweat either so this is outside of her comfort zone majorly. But that is what a mother does. My mom is following me to the ends of the Earth to support my dreams. I remember when I was younger and our church was going on a family mission trip to Africa and we weren’t able to go as a family because my brother has allergies for the shots that were required for the trip. I remember telling my mom then that I was going to go to Africa one day and here I am. I didn’t think she would be with me in Africa but she is. We both are involved with ministries in and around Columbus and all over Ohio really. I wanted to go out and see the world but that isn’t her dream. At least not in this aspect or the countries I have been to. She would prefer to go to wineries in France or eat the food of Italy. She is sacrificing time off work which she doesn’t have holiday pay for, lots of travel hours for a short trip, jet-lag, and the potential for ministries that are dirty just to be with me. That is the love of a mother. I am scared that she will come out here and I will be going home with her. I am still in need of major funds and I am past all deadlines and extensions that I have been given and it is very serious. I could be sent home any day now. Every day when I wake up, funding plagues my thoughts and every night when I go to bed, it is the last thing I pray about. I don’t want to spend so much time worrying and stressing about finances on the race so I am asking, how can you help? Can you help me stay and finish out my last few months on the race? I have about 3 and a half months left, 3 more countries, and 3 more ministry sights to experience. Please consider clicking on the Support me button on the left side of your screen. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!
