I am so thankful 2014 started after a trying year plagued with multiple knee injuries in 2013. I was in a very bad place emotionally and physically not sure I would be able to run, climb or do the things I loved again. The prospect of facing knee surgery, rehabilitation and ‘time off’ left me feeling lost and questioning my ability to do the things we take for granted every day. But hope was just around the corner.<\/p>\n
While recovering, my friend Carmen came over to check on me and try to lift my spirits. She assured me that EVENTUALLY I would be fine. She suggested I focus my energy on getting better and perhaps OTHER things besides running and climbing for a while. Maybe put MY plans and dreams on hold!<\/p>\n
Run for Life Team Maisha pre-missions meeting<\/p>\n
Carmen is involved with Maisha International, an Oklahoma organization working in Kenya. Maisha started 7 years ago as a small program in rural Kenya and has become a center for transformation in the community. She was planning her second trip and asked my daughter Kyndal and I to join her.<\/p>\n
A few days later Carmen called to check on me. She had learned about the Rift Valley Marathon which would occur while she was in Kenya. Running in Africa has been a dream of Carmen\u2019s that is coming true. She encouraged me to think about it. Immediately I said yes, knowing I would have a goal and something to look forward to besides the mission trip and motivate me to work and rehab hard and have patience.<\/p>\n
This January, after multiple surgeries, tons of rehab and a LOT of PATIENCE I have gotten myself ready for RUNFORLIFE. I will be running with a group of Kenyan kids from Maisha on a relay team in the Rift Valley Marathon on March 15th. Something a year ago I never dreamed possible!<\/p>\n
Maisha’s Run for Life runners at Rift Valley Marathon<\/p>\n
The obstacles I\u2019ve faced don\u2019t compare with the ones my Kenyan running team faces every day. They looked insurmountable before I searched outside myself. I have come to realize there are blessings in everything and opportunities to grow everywhere…if we just keep the faith and have a little patience. The icing on the cake is, while in Kenya, I\u2019m going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro…a dream come true for me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am so thankful 2014 started after a trying year plagued with multiple knee injuries in 2013. I was in a very bad place emotionally and physically not sure I would be able to run, climb or do the things I loved again. The prospect of facing knee surgery, rehabilitation and ‘time off’ left me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}