"I'd Like to Thank the Academy..."

I feel like I'm about to get up on stage and say, "I'd like to thank the Academy and all of the little people who helped me get where I am today."  If I were saying the following in person, I'd probably be crying but since it's not, you'll be spared my tears and I won't be embarrassed .

In less than 24 hours, I'll be on a plane out of Kenya.  I'll say my goodbyes to the children and the staff, gather my things, and head home.  I'm anxious to get home - probably more so than ever before - but it will be sad to leave, too.  I was just thinking last night about how maybe I've said one too many goodbyes in my lifetime, especially in the last 7 years - it has become such a common part of my life that it's like second nature.  But it won't change the fact that my heart will still be sad.  I don't know that I can adequately convey what a rich and rewarding time this has been for me, in so many different ways.  I could go on and on about the blessings I have received while here.

But what I really want to take the time to say right now is "thank you."  Thanks for reading, thanks for "virtually" coming along with me on this trip, thanks for commenting, thanks for laughing and crying along with me.  This blog has been an unexpected blessing - it's not only afforded me the chance to write, which I love doing, but it's afforded me the opportunity to share stories, to share photos, to share life with others who cannot be here with me.

I won't have the space nor the time to adequately and sufficiently outline every single person that has had a hand in this trip.  You would get tired of reading after awhile.  So I'm writing to say thanks with broad strokes, but I'm trying to avoid saying "and I'd like to thank every person I have ever met," which just sounds insincere and lame. 

To my family at First Baptist Church in Fulton - Ed, Debbie, Pastor Gary and Kristin, the Missions Committee, those were at my prayer send-off, and so many others.  You helped make a dream come true.  I have spent nearly 7 years with you and you have welcomed with open arms, whether I was coming or going.  I would never be able to fully express what a gift you have been to me.  The countless college lunches, the prayers that you covered me with, the financial support for this trip, the time spent investing in my life, challenging me, supporting me, loving me.  You truly are the body of Christ in action.   Whatever thanks I have to say will always fall short.

To my new Rafiki family here in Kenya - Yeen-Lan, Patty, Catherine, Stephen, Peter, the Aunties and Mamas, the other ROS, and national staff.  What gems you have been to me.  I think short-term volunteers come here thinking they will be a blessing, but it us in fact who have been blessed.  My life is richer because of the opportunity to have labored alongside you.  It has been satisfying work, rewarding work.  Thank you for encouraging me and being such faithful followers of Christ and for so obediently serving Him.

And here's the part where I would probably start crying so hard that I wouldn't be able to get the words out and the stage director would say it's time for a commercial and would cue the orchestra so that I would get off the stage faster.

Mom and Dad - I know I said most of this in the letter I left you, but I want to say it publicly because you need to know that your support has mattered a great deal to me.  Being a parent is a thankless job, and your children often forget that you have emotions and fears as well.  I know you have had to battle many of those fears through this process - it was hard enough to send me to Missouri, to San Diego, to Russia, to North Carolina, then back to Missouri, and a few other places in between.  Then I decided to come to Africa and I'm sure the fears roared.  But I'll never be able to sufficiently tell you how grateful I am to have the kind of parents who said "go" even though I know you desperately wanted to say "stay" (which you certainly did say on several occasions, but also had enough sense to know I'd be going anyway).  :)  Thanks for giving me the chance to take flight when you would have liked to have clipped my wings, even if for my own protection and your peace of mind.  You have done well and I'm honored to call you my Mom and Dad.

Jeremy, Josh, Grace, Julie, Grandma, MawMaw, and the rest of the clan, whom I dearly love - you can't be replaced.  Thanks for keeping in touch even when I'm galavanting all over the place.  Thanks for loving me even when it seems I spend more time apart from you than with you.  I'm hoping my time apart from you becomes few and far between in the coming years.  I'm tired of always being gone from you all.  

I know there are plenty of other people I could thank who have been a part of this trip in both big and small ways, and I write these knowing I'm just grazing the surface - I'm not intentionally trying to leave anyone out so don't take offense.  Stephanie and Zach, thanks for your financial support.  Em, thanks for dreaming alongside me and going to training with me even though it didn't work out for you to likewise come to Africa this summer.  I know your Africa will someday become a reality, too.  Alex, you are a priceless gem.  I'm glad you were in Germany the same time I was here just for the sheer fact that even though we were thousands of miles apart, we'll share in the experience of being abroad.  I'll think of you tomorrow when I have to become a Girl Scout again to navigate the airports.  Kristen, Erica, Venita, Travis, Student Life Staff, and so many other friends and former co-workers - thanks for your prayers and e-mails of encouragement.

I know, my words aren't enough.  And the music is playing telling me I need to get off stage.  Thank you, Father, for truly I would not have missed this for the world.