My Mother Was Right...

As much as I hate to admit it, it's true. For those of you who read this blog for the express purpose of hearing about my journey to Russia, we're going to digress a little bit today. Okay, a lot.

Anyway, growing up I was pretty much a tomboy, let's just make that clear. I preferred to be outside, didn't like to dress up and so on and so forth. I would tell my mom that I was going to stay single forever and never have kids. Instead, I wanted to be an accomplished career woman living in a little apartment in the Big City with a dog. Mom was very good. She never quashed my dreams but she always told me that it was good to keep my options open because some day I might change my mind.

Well friends, some day is today.

Okay well not literally today. But it's here. Staring me in the face.

Yes, that's right. I'm succumbing to Womanhood! *Gasp* NOOOOO!

So in recent months. Namely since May, I've discovered something interesting. I like running a household. I know, right? Me. I find myself feeling very fulfilled when I spend afternoons alternately working on Russia stuff and doing dishes and laundry. And the days I feel really special and important? The days that mom works late and it's my job to make dinner for Dad and my Brother. Oh yes... Suddenly, I find myself thinking "You know, it would be really nice to be married and have a family," Yes, that's right. I think it.

If you know me, you also know my aversion to children, or rather Children's aversion to me. I mean, I like kids and all but I've never been one of those "Let me fawn all over your children" kind of people. Kids tolerate me and I like them in small doses. So it's kind of a shocker for me when I'm sitting at the park alternately having devo time and watching the families and thinking "If those were my kids I would..." Yeah. That's right. I've started having maternal moments. It's rather terrifying actually.

Plus, I've become more sentimental in my old age.
I cry during chick flicks
I cry during disney movies
I cry during Conan the Barbarian (Okay that was because of the terrible scripting)
I cry when I read novels
I cry when I think about this summer
I cry when I hold babies

I feel like I could just go to Africa and supply all those well-less villages with water. We could just desalinate it and we'd be good to go.

All joking aside though, it's kind of weird for me to discover this. I mean I've always liked helping people. But this is different. My boyfriend stops by after work and I'm like "Let me feed you and take care of you!" (At least I don't have to walk him) or with my brother today. I informed him that I was making tacos tonight and he goes "Oh goody! I'll come home for dinner then." which made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Basically, this terribly independent, liberated, no nonsense woman, famed for the fact that she "Don't need no man to buy/make/help/do..." has discovered that she kind of enjoys taking care of the men in her life.

Hats off to you, Momma.

Are You Still Looking for Funding?

So, things are slowly coming together. Actually, in some ways they are starting to come together quite quickly. You see, I was finally able to reach a consulate in Ukraine who said that they could help me when it was time to get a new visa. All this was well and good and I was pretty excited until I realized that I had no budget to travel to Ukraine 3ish times, stay there for two weeks and get a new visa. I was starting to stress about it and finally I had a long chat about it with God and tried not to worry.

Maybe a day or two later, I got an e-mail from Joel. Basically he informed me that we were switching things up with my visa because he was going to get me a year-long multi-entry business visa. Say what? That's right. Not only is my visa going to be good for an entire year, but I will be able to exit and re-enter the country. Can I get a Whoop-Whoop? There was a flurry of activity to get the paperwork in for the letter of invitation which, I was informed would take about a month to process. It will then be FedExed to me and it will be probably about 10 days on my end to actually get the visa, pushing my departure date back to sometime just after Sept 20th.

Which was actually just fine for me. Why? Well, because I'd been looking at my funding and even without having to go to Ukraine three times, I was still kind of worried.

Which brings me to my new favorite question:

Are you still fundraising?

I've had several people recently who are interested in funding my trip ask me this. The answer, dear friends, is always yes. I don't care what the "deadline" was on the paper. The answer is still yes.

You see, we are missionaries. What does that mean? It means that local churches and individuals support us so that we can focus our energy on teaching, preaching, encouraging, sharing and generally spreading God's word. As a result, sometimes there are sudden expenses on the field, trips, emergencies, etc. Or sometimes a congregation that has been supporting a long-term mission suddenly decides it can't any more and pulls funding.

My point in telling you this is that you shouldn't let the fact that a mission might already be funded stop you from giving. Chances are they aren't. And if by some miracle they have all the money they budgeted for, your support could go toward helping another project that otherwise might not be possible.

Now, would anyone be interested in giving $90 a month to support a lovely young lady in Russia...? :P