36 hours

In 36 hours I will be getting on a plane to begin my journey back to Africa.  It's been just over 2 years since I last went, and oh how I have missed it!  I have been at a place with the adoption where I thought the next time I went would be to get Ella, but God has made a way for me to go THIS WEEK.  It almost doesn't seem real, but I'd better snap out of that because the time is upon me!

As I get to this point, I am a jumble of lots of things--trying to remember everything for both here and there, trying to comfort my children, trying to comfort myself, trying to stay on top of everything....but tonight, as I prepare for bed, I want to quit trying all those things for the moment and really focus fully on something different.

I am going to try to focus less on the details and more on HIM.  (That's not to say I haven't been getting prayed up already, but the details and the "Martha" in me certainly do seem to get in the way a lot of times.)  I want to be fully ready when I set foot in the airport on Thursday for whatever God has for me, and I want to not get so caught up in whether I am bringing enough shirts or whatever that I forget why I'm going.  I am going to make HIS NAME famous--not mine.  I get so nervous and caught up in what I can't do that I forget how much HE can do.  I don't have to be a great speaker--even the apostle Paul talked about being timid and weak.  But I do need to dwell in His presence.  I may fumble my words, but God can use them for His glory, so I pray I will focus on Him and not me--no matter what.  (And this is hard for me to say--makes me nervous just writing it because it means God may very well be planning to put this into action!)

But as nervous as I get, as scared as I am, I am so thankful because (as of this post) I have had about 40 people in just the last day tell me that they will be praying for our team over the next couple weeks.  Not only does each day we're gone have a specific person assigned to it, but there are many more who have promised to pray throughout the trip.  I know the power of prayer, so I look with anticipation at what God has planned for our little team.  I pray that our lives might never be the same.

I look forward to sharing the journey with you once we return.  The Lord is up to something, and I am so thankful to be a part of it.  May His name be known!