birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a special day.  Ehren always tries to make it as special for me as possible.  And it is funny how excited the kids were too, making me cards, necklaces and bracelets and Anika just could not wait to give it to me in the morning.  Kason is our big hugger and I'm not exaggerating when I say he gave me a big hug and said "happy birthday, mom.  I love you!" at least 40 times throughout the day.  And I loved it every single time. :)

I also went out for lunch with 3 girl friends and that was special too.  It is so hard to get together with my dear friends on regular basis because of everyone's constant running around so it was even more special we got to do it on my birthday.  And it was a lovely break to my day.

Then something else happened yesterday that is a huge deal and I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.  Our church does pretty frequent missions trips to Liberia where we are working with the local church and I remember last year I had a thought that if there was a way to work with orphanages or kids over there I would love to go some day.  When I was a young girl I dreamed about going to the mission field in Africa and help with kids there but then I fell in love at 17 and started my married life in MN at 20 so Africa never happened. :)

Anyway, about a week ago I heard our church was looking for a woman to go on a 10 day missions trip to help a nurse that's going there with kids' screenings at a school over there.  My first thought was "someone else can go, they always find someone."  But then I saw an announcement in the bulletin at church that they were still looking for a woman and for some reason it hit me that this is the perfect time for me to go.  I don't have a full-time job that is keeping me from going, our kids are older and will be in school that whole time.  So after I told Ehren about it he said I should just ask the pastor about it and see.  I e-mailed our pastor about it and truthfully, I was really thinking he's going to say it won't work or that they already have someone.  Well instead, he was really excited and sent my e-mails to everyone involved including the Liberian people.  He told me I need to get the shots required right away so I can be ready to go.  I was like "what just happened?" It happened way too fast and all I wanted to know was if there was a chance to go.  Before I asked the pastor I prayed about it and I told God how impossible this seems (given the fact that the trip is at the end of March) and that if He really wants me to go that He will have to open the doors for me.  Today I talked to another lady in charge who's been there before and I thought at least she'd give me some bad news but she was also very encouraging about everything and that it will be hard to get the visa but if I get the shots I'll be ready to go.  She said to call a traveling doctor right away who would give me a yellow fever shot and something else and she said sometimes it's really hard to get in for an appointment.  So again I thought there would be something in my way of going but I called and I can get the shots next week.  So now I am starting to get a bit more panicky.  Not in a bad way but in a way of "wow, this might be actually happening." :) So I am not sure what will happen and for some reason I have a huge peace about not going if it doesn't work out.  But I'm getting more and more nervous (if that's the word) about going mostly because it is in such a short time, it's Africa and I don't have time to process it all.  A lot of prayer is needed and I trust that God has a plan in all this.  They desperately need nurses there yet our nurse can't go without another woman and maybe if I'm just willing to go God will take care of everything else.  So that is my huge thing right now.  I think if there was more time it would be easier but most of these trips happen really quickly depending on the locals who do not plan months ahead with certain things.

So if you will, please pray for me that God would prepare me to go in every way if I'm supposed to go and for this specific short term mission so that they are able to send a team whoever it is and that God's name will be glorified in all of it.