Surprise!

Today was one of those days...17mths of an emotional roller coaster! We are 1 week from leaving for Ethiopia for trip #1 and boy is there a lot to do! During this process you have you good days and bad days. Excited joyful days and days that you are completely overwhelmed. Today was one of those days..in the midst of my stressing I was praying for some peace and some reassurance. This is the email I got next:

This is from my niece whom I haven't seen since I was a teenager but thanks to good ol' Facebook we have been able to reconnect!! Jen has been a constant support through this whole process!! She has posted and emailed and prayed and even sent money when she didn't have it to send. She is an amazing women and an amazing Mom!! Love you! This is the email:

"Surprise"
Dear Paige, Anthony and family,


It started with a desire to help, a burning, longing desire to bring your kids home for you to hold and to love. I knew you wouldn’t want me to send you money just to send it, that you might feel bad. So I had an idea, what I think is a great idea. I knew you couldn’t possibly feel bad when you knew that people who’d never met you or heard your story reached out and did something wonderful for you. Right now we are one week in, with two to go. I don’t know the outcome but I know this has renewed my faith in not only God but in people. Paige I love you because you are my family and I love your family because you love them. Now take a minute to see what love can do.

Love Always,
Jen



The post that went out on Facebook..... and in an email....



Do not post anything about this on my wall! This is a surprise! I want to see how many of you are willing to do something for a stranger!

Okay, here's the challenge.
Those precious hands belong to a little girl and a little boy that are in Ethiopia waiting to be adopted, as most of you know my Aunt and her family are hoping to adopt these children. After they decided to adopt the rules were changed and each family adopting from Ethiopia must now travel twice instead of once. Can you imagine what it cost to fly half way around the world! About $14,000 total!!! But they'd started the process and couldn't very well stop could they!
In trying to be creative and asking for donations I have came up with a challenge!
Starting today and until October 15th, every mile that you walk I will give them a dollar of MY money. I'm not asking you to give any of your own money, I'm asking you to be healthy! All you have to do is email me, daily, weekly, whatever you want and tell me how many miles you've walked. I will keep track of it. And yes this includes if you do laps at Wal-Mart! I want you all to know that I care about you as much as I care about these children coming home!
Email me after you've read this and let me know if you're in or not! Have a great day everyone!!!!

At the end of the challenge I will email my aunt with the names of each person who participated and how many miles they walked for children they didn't know! All this is going to cost you is maybe some time and some pounds!

Remember email me and let me know if you’re on board!!!

We hung a chalkboard in our dining room to remind us how far we’d come and how far we could go, this was after ten days……

I tracked every mile in a spread sheet and every mile got a tally, updates went out twice a week about where we were at!

And so many had nice things to say…..

Erin Hartman Scott September 24 at 12:pm


Wow really how could I turn this down and I need to walk I will do it. Thanks Jen god will bless you and all that do this I love you


Heather 'sears' Martin September 25 at 11:43am Reply Report


Sure I'll do it! God Bless you Jen! I hope you're doing well!


Alyssa Marie Rodriguez September 29 at 6:24pm


I'll do it, but I'm very busy right now I won't be able to check in that often. I'm up to the challenge though!


April Gray-Walton DeGarmo September 29 at 6:22pm

Count me in! I can't wait to meet the little ones! Ur Aunt &Uncle and the children are in my prayers!

Charles Bordeaux October 3 at 7:01am

I have been walking but don't know how much but I can give you a close estimate on Oct. 15th/ it will not be alot of miles because I cant do it every day although I would like to !!

And I had many more texts, they didn’t know you but they knew they had to do it.
And after 14 days…

We reached 100!

Well here it is, October 15th and we’re all done. Of course I had dreamed of reaching goals so much higher, but then I remember that three weeks ago most of these people on this list had never heard your name, maybe had never donated not a single penny to charity, but they chose to walk for you and for these beautiful children. I consider it a blessing to know that I have people in my life that literally will go the extra mile….. and here they are….

We reached 208 miles!

God Bless you for what you are doing! You’ve struggled, you’ve cried, you’ve even gotten mad a few times. But nothing in the world is more precious than what you’ve done. I’d walk a million more miles for you!



Ps

Money’s in your PayPal ;)
Thank you so much Jen and everyone who walked for us and prayed for us!!!!