Mi Madre
Mi Mejor Amiga
MY Steph
This is one of those time I sit down to write a blog and I have a tons of words to write yet none of them are coming out. I want to write every detail of my week spent with Steph and PVT but lets be honest that would be the longest blog ever. So, I am going to just start writing and we will just see where it leads.
I have been praying about PVT since we found out about it at training camp. I have been excited about this trip since the day we found out about it. As excited about it as I was, I was also extremely nervous. PVT stands for Parent Vision Trip. I was planning on inviting 2 people who were not my parents.
I love God and how His plans work out.
I came on this race feeling a lot like an orphan, It was even hard for me to pray to God as my Father. Chad and Steph had been pursuing me as one of their own children for a while and I was starting to feel more and more like they were my parents. Coming on the race I had no clue God would work in big ways through that relationship. Around the end of month one God had done a huge work in my heart and I felt fully confident that the prayer I had been praying since I was a child, asking for parents had been answered and God had given me the Everetts. Little did I know God was working in their hearts as well. Since month one Steph and I have argued, poured out our hearts to each other, prayed for each other, and talked as much as we could. I was learning how to be a daughter not just to them but to God as well. I started praying to God as my Father and I started tearing down walls and allowing Stephanie and Chad into my life in deeper and more intimate ways.
Fast Forward to month 8.
Thailand was a crazy ride of emotions. I couldn’t wait for Steph to be on the mission field with me. She had paid for her ticket and she was coming to PVT. I spent the month praying for what God was going to do during our time together. We had a 5 day travel experience to get us from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Boca Chica, Dominican Republic for debrief. All I could think about was Steph being in the DR with me I knew she would be there in a few short days. On May 4th the 27 of us racers were packed and ready to head to Juan Dolio where we would spend the week with our parents. I couldn’t eat or concentrate I was so nervous. The 10 girls who were not going with us and going on to ministry asked us our prayer request for the week so they could pray into our time with our parents. I knew Steph and I didn’t have to have hard conversations so I asked for prayers that this new mother daughter relationship wouldn’t be awkward.
When the last bus of parents rolled up to our hotel I was so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling. I was standing on the curb with my lime green sign waiting for her to get off the bus but then I started getting really nervous and moved to the back of the crowd and just waited for her there. When she finally made her way back to me we hugged each other so tight. I didn’t want to let go. I could tell from the moment we saw each other that our relationship really was different. God had changed our hearts and our friendship.
The next few days went way to fast. We laughed a lot, talked a lot, did not want to wake up in the mornings, and spent lots of time traveling on public transportation. Our first day of ministry together I was expecting to feel this different feeling of what its like to do ministry with your parents, but as we were bent down picking trash out a bush and raking up trash piles to be put into plastic bags it hit me, this is our normal life. Since the beginning of our relationship we have just done life in this way. Its not this once in a while mission trip that helps to do these things together. We just live life like this. I stood up and just smiled because I love that not only does she guide me through issues and celebrate my big dreams, she pushes me closer to Christ through our walk together. That night at worship we got to have conversations about what life is going to look like once I get back to Hickman, how we can live like this even there. I got to move into her room to stay for the rest of the week that night and we stayed up way to late talking even more. I went to sleep that night with a full heart.
The next two days the conversations didn’t stop, we talked about my wedding about my future plans, her heart. We laughed and she hugged me more than she ever has in the whole time I have known her.
Wednesday rolled around and I cried because our time together was almost over. All day I kept just thanking God that He would take complete strangers and turn their relationship into
a beautiful picture of what family looks like. That day we did ministry and I was starting to feel really sick, I went through the first part of the day trying not think about it but I knew I wasn’t going to make it the rest of the day but ended up so sick and couldn’t make it through ministry. I got back to out hotel and had pretty intense stomach pains along with a fever. I ended up having to go straight to bed and once I woke up I was so frustrated, I was sad that Steph had flown all this way and we only had a few days together and I was laying there in a bed sick. I kept praying for God to just heal me but instead I was just getting sicker. I laid there until my fever broke and I made myself go to worship. I slipped in through the back and sat on the floor. I am so thankful I didn’t miss this night.
God moved in big ways.
I sat in the back and watched my squad and most of our parents lay hands on Candace and pray, they prayed and prayed until she was healed. There was no doubt that the holy spirit was present and He was moving. I sat in the floor with my heart so full that He loves me this much. That I could see healing happening, that I could be under an awning in the Dominican Republic with the woman who God has given me to be my mom. I knew God had opened eyes and changed hearts that night.
The next day I was even sicker but I pushed through so that I wouldn’t miss a minute of my time with Steph. We took a bus into the capital and shopped. We had lunch at a nice restaurant and just got to sit on the bus and talk, the closer we got to home the worse I felt. I kept pushing through. We got to have our last dinner in the DR together at the hotel I stayed at in 2012. It was the perfect scenery and the best way to end the week. We had one last worship service with our parents before we ended the week. This is the worship service I had been waiting on all week. We had planned a foot washing service and communion time to do with our parents.
In this week I had already seen Steph cry more tears than I have ever seen her cry.
That night we got to take communion together just her and I. Then I got to sit at her feet and wash them. I got to wash the feet of the woman who has shown me what loving like Jesus truly looks like. I got to wash the feet of the women of who loved me despite what the world was saying to her. I got to wash the feet of the woman who has help my hand through the ugly and held on to me tight while the rest of the world walked away. I got to wash the feet of the woman who has sit in her kitchen floor and prayed for me, the woman who has stood in her driveway at midnight and held me as I cried about the brokenness of my past. I got to wash the feet of the woman who has sat through conversation of me yelling and crying and never walked away. I got to wash the feet of the woman who picked me up on the side of the road and has never let me go. I got to wash the feet of the woman who has become the mother I have prayed so long for.
When my turn came and she wanted to wash my feet, I saw her sit at my feet and cry as she prayed for me. It is one of those moments I can’t explain in words, one of those moments that I am not sure anyone but God and her and I will ever understand. It was a moment that the love I felt from her was so deep that I will forever know how much she loves me.
Steph has been my best friend and now she is my mother. She is the one I call when things are going wrong and she is the one I can’t wait to celebrate with when life is good. She is my biggest fan and the first one to call out the ugliness in me. She loves me in a way that she calls me closer to Christ. She gives me Jesus answers when I need advice because she knows God is what I need. She drives me to want to look more like Him and less like the world.
As I sat down to process my time with her, I kept writing in my journal all the ways I got to sit back and watch her shine this week. I kept the words, “She is not selfish” over and over because that is what she always says to me…I am selfish. Here are some things I wrote.
I watched Steph stand in the middle of a one room school and dance with beautiful Dominican babies. She is not selfish with the joy she has!
I watched Steph sit sweet little kids in her lap and lift them up and down to make them laugh. She is not selfish with the sense of humor she has!
I watched Steph make friends with the girl on a bus and trade bracelets with her so she wouldn’t forget her. She is not selfish with the overflow of love in her heart.
I watched Steph become friends with a man in the streets of the capital and walk with him for several blocks so she could know everything about him. She is not selfish with her time!
I am thankful for Steph and how much she loves me. I am thankful that for the first time in 17 years I know what it feels like to be a daughter. I am thankful that we can do missions together in the states and in other countries. I am thankful for a God that loves us so deeply that all we can do is in return love others deeply. I am thankful to be serving with an organization that allows us a week with our parents on the mission field. I am thankful that when other parents and racers saw Steph and I together they told us we look just alike.
PVT was the last stage of my fully following God in the path of trusting Steph and Chad as my parents and for that I will forever be thankful.
Parent Vision Trip – X Squad from Kiersten Hammock on Vimeo.
**My Friend and squad mate Kiersten Hammock made this video of PVT. She is a rock star at making videos. Check out her blog for more fun videos from her time on the race.**
