preparing.

preparing. {physically and mentally}.

in just ONE week, i will be boarding a plane to Haiti to embark on a journey that i've only dreamed about for years. my journey to this place began three years ago and i never would have believe that i would be moving for eight months. i've shared my story. i've shared my journey. but for those that don't know i'm going to start at the beginning. june/july 2008 i embarked on a trip with a group of students from my 8th grade class to France. the idea of traveling with some of my best friends - sounded like a great idea, but in all honestly i could have very easily never traveled again after that trip. i spent the first week crying most nights. all i wanted was to be home. fast forward a year and some and i return home from a trip to Tennessee with my church for a youth conference with a crazy idea that i wanted to travel again. i'm sure it took everything in my parents not to tell me i was crazy. they had endured a dozen phone calls a year prior with myself on the other end sobbing into the phone. 

thousands of students gathered in Tennessee and skyped high school students who were in thailand - serving and viewing various missions organizations. they were opening up a few other trips to all the students in the room. my leader at the time, leaned over to me and told me he felt on his heart that i should apply. why me in our group of 10 students? why not someone else? well it was his words that ultimately got me to apply and be accepted into yet another international trip without my parents. my parents spent hours figuring what phone worked internationally {and probably spending far more money on it than they should have} and preparing a book with hand written notes from loved ones for each day i was gone. everyone {including myself} anticipated another long trip filled with homesickness and tears - yet there was something calling me and compelling me to go. and that is what i did. i pushed through the fears and doubts and God has a crazy way of working. i absolutely fell in love - not only with traveling but with God. a deeper love with both than i could imagine. 

fast forward 6 years and i am packing and preparing to move for 8 months.