Preparations

 Let me take you back a couple of months and tell you about some of our preparations.

The last seven months since Emily's graduation from Wheaton College in May have been a flurry of activity as she has worked endlessly on fundraising and training for this big adventure called the World Race. It seemed so daunting and unattainable to raise $14,300.00 in such a short time. I admit my faith was not up to the task. But I'm a very practical person and I like to be busy meeting a need rather than feeling and worrying (which I do plenty of), so we got to work. My parents had just sold their home in the mountains and were moving to an assisted living facility, so we thought it was a good time to have a huge garage sale to clean out before the move and use the proceeds for the World Race. It was a lot of work but so successful that we ended up having another sale two weeks later. I am so thankful for friends who donated items and who came to help and buy! And I've been fascinated to read about some of the creative fundraising ideas that other racers have blogged about! Their stories are engaging and motivating, so if you're needing some ideas, visit the Worldrace website with a cup of coffee and join in on the adventures.

In addition to garage sales, Emily sent out letters to many friends and family sharing about her mission and what she hoped to accomplish through the World Race. She spoke in our church, both in the English-speaking services as well as the Spanish service. It was great to hear her communicate so well in her second language, and this was further confirmation to me that she was serious about her future goals. It's been amazing to see all the responses and support she has received over these last few months!! It has renewed my faith in people's desire to be a part of something that God is doing and it's contagious....I believe in it more than I did at first. I had doubts that God was in it when she first told us, and we would know this when we couldn't meet the fundraising deadlines. I knew God had led others to go and I had supported one of my previous students who is on the Race now, but I was resistent to Emily leaving, especially so soon. I felt like others would see this as just another international trip for Emily (since she had been on several) and question the necessity in these tough times, or assume that she didn't want to settle down after college with a real job, so she was stalling or putting off her future....you know the usual remarks or thoughts that come to mind....and we parents are insecure enough to feel like we have to rationalize and fill in the missing facts for everyone to really get it. But that's NOT what happened at all!! Confirmation after confirmation from God came through as she met her goals with hard work and generous partners! It is very apparent that she really is following a call to serve and gain experience which will give direction to her graduate school program rather than continuing even more education with no clear vision.....all this is fueled by a passion that she doesn't even totally grasp yet but she's compelled to go....and I just now get it.

Oh but I knew it all along in hindsight, right?! Haha...wish that was true. I should not be surprised because I had all this prior knowledge of her desire to pursue work in international fields. I watched her grow up fascinated by other cultures and languages and saw how winsome she was with people who were different than she was. I saw her study hard in high school and college and go to places where she would be emersed to learn her second language. She was driven and intentional all along...so of course she became obsessed with the opportunity that the World Race would afford her! This all fits together, but I wasn't ready to let her expand her horizons; at least not to this extent.

I think so much of this process has been not just for her but for me. It doesn't matter what everyone else thinks as much as it matters what I think of her and about what she is doing. I've gotten to know my own daughter so much better, and it is so important for me to see what a remarkable and driven and principled and compassionate and thinking and deliberate person she has grown up to be. I'm learning so much from her and I'll share some of those things in another blog. So how can I stand in the way? Don't we raise our kids to launch them into the world anyway?? My definition of the world is changing though....some out of necessity, some out of conviction. But this change of mind is helping me let her go.....not easily or carefreely (is that a word?)....but actually. Wow, I talk big, don't I?! Wait until the next few blogs when I can't see what I'm typing through my tears...