After a grueling 36 hours of traveling, I made it safely back home Friday night.
Oh, the stories I have to tell (once I get unpacked, caught up on sleep, and my brain isn’t so foggy)….
For now, I will sum up the Russia trip in one word:
AMAZING.
Category Archives: Travel
To Russia With Love
Well, I’m off on the adventure.
My bags are stuffed to the brim.
Green one is clothes. Blue one is lots and lots of this fun stuff:
Snap bracelets, glow bracelets, whirlygigs, paper, googley eyes, face paint, pencils & pens galore…..etc.
There’s another larger suitcase full of fun goodies that had to be dropped off at another house earlier since it won’t fit in our car with both of us and these bags. 
The kids will be happy.
Thank you to all who have donated money to help with this mission. I appreciate it SO incredibly much.
With God, I go. Catch ya in two weeks!
One Week
In one week, I’ll be fully immersed in the Russian culture and probably wishing I would’ve taken the time to learn the language more (or at all). Thankfully, there will be a translator and I’m traveling with others who have been there and seemingly know where we’re going and how to get there. I’ve been forewarned that it’s not like in Europe, where directions and signage are frequently in English. In Russia, it’s Russian. And that’s it.
Большой. (which means ‘great’. Although I have no idea how to pronounce that.)
Those 7 years of Spanish won’t help me any this time.
And I’m okay with that. These 2 weeks in the heart of Russia will be my time to disconnect and be 100% in the moment. I’ll kiss my phone and email goodbye until I return back home.
This trip has taken on a whole new meaning for me following a series of unfortunate events we endured this past week and I’m even more uncertain about how I’ll handle such a long period of time away from my loving husband and contact with family. But I’m anticipating this being the most awesome time with God and those children who I’ll come to love so much. So how can I not look forward to that?!
That’s all to say, I can really use your prayers even more now than I thought I needed them before.
And for Todd also, two weeks of bachelorhood can be tough.
And if you would still like to make a monetary donation to help us out, you make a secure one through PayPal here:
I should probably start packing soon.
It Will Be Awesome
I mentioned several weeks (months?) ago that I will be taking a big trip this summer. ‘Big’ is kind of an understatement. In two weeks, I leave for Russia.
yeah, Russia.
And no, Todd will not be traveling with me, but I’m certainly not going alone. I will be traveling with 6 other people from our church to Dyatkovo, Russia to help at a children’s camp. Not just any children’s camp, but a former Communist camp that is now operated by Christians. An exciting opportunity for everyone involved, and I feel blessed that God called me to be a part of this.
I know 3 words in Russian:
да (Dah) – Yes
HeT (nyet) – No
спасибо (cpa cee ba) – Thank you
Oh, and the sound they make to describe a cat. But I can’t spell that one out for you.
Should be interesting, that’s for sure. God will be with us too, so despite my anxiety and fears of what lies ahead, I know it will all be okay.
Here’s where I ask you for your help. I’m asking for donations, if you feel compelled to give, please do so. We still need money for travel expenses and sending the Russian kids to camp. Many of them can’t afford the daily fee, and we want to give them this wonderful opportunity. Whatever you can give will be so very much appreciated.
But more than anything, I really want your prayers. Prayers for a safe trip, prayers that we can connect with these kids and teach them about God in ways that they can come to know him. Prayers that we can just make some kind of positive impact on their lives.
It will be awesome. Of this, I am sure.
спасибо! (Thank you!)
You can make a secure donation through PayPal here:
Running Around the Rockies
Brace yourself for an onslaught of photos. I’m recapping 4 days of vacation into 1 post.
Last week, we went to Denver to see our friends from college, Meridith & Dallas—who was the best man at our wedding. Talk about a small world….I knew both of them before I even knew Todd, as I had them in some of my advertising classes at K-State. At the time, I never would’ve thought 7 years later that we’d still be hanging out, but I’m so glad life has worked out the way it has. Wow, 7 years, I feel really old right now.
For our Thursday recreational activity, we headed out to Roxborough State Park for a mild hike. In rattlesnake country.
If you know me, you know I have a huge fear of snakes. HUGE. Thanks to the promise that the weather was too cool for snakes to be slithering around (I shudder at the thought), I pressed on through the threat of snake and/or mountain lion attack.
I’m glad we went hiking, it was gorgeous there, with the red rocks reaching out towards the sky.
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On Friday, I split off to hang out with two of my college roommates, Shannah & Angela, who also live in the Denver/Colorado Springs area. Man, I really miss these girls. The years living with them were some of the best (albeit craziest) years of my life but now we’re all grown up and responsible adults. I was super excited for this reunion also because I finally got to meet Angela’s little girl, Brightyn. It’s so awesome seeing girls I’ve known for most of my life turn into moms.
After a full day of shopping and catching up on several years of life apart, we said our goodbyes and then Shannah dropped me off to meet the rest of the gang at a lively dueling piano bar. Quite the entertaining night.
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Saturday we made a pit stop for doughnuts & coffee and drove an hour north to Ft. Collins. Why Ft. Collins, you ask?
Well last fall, Mer somehow convinced me to sign up for the Colorado Marathon (I chose to do the 1/2 marathon instead and she signed up for the full but ended up changing to the 1/2 now that she’s 3 months pregnant).
Somehow when I registered back in December I made the good judgment not to attempt the full. Thank goodness. Let’s just say that my training (if I can even call it that) for this race was very lackluster. We also got to see Dallas’ dad & stepmom who brought out over 40 runners from their training program in the Kansas City area.
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Sunday morning was race morning and we were all up and out of the hotel by 5 a.m. Us runners had to take shuttle buses up in the mountains and then run down the canyon to the finish in downtown Ft. Collins.
I wish I would’ve had my camera—but it’s a pain to run with—since the start at sunrise, winding down through La Poudre Canyon, next to the river was just amazing. It looked something like this:
Once we got out of the mountains, the race was basically flat (thankfully, since I was not prepared for much of a hill challenge).
(photo courtesy of runningmemories)
Surprisingly, I felt great. My main goal was to have fun and not injure myself, both of which I achieved. It’s nice not being out to set a personal best or feel pressure to run harder. I was having a blast, and finally around mile 8, I saw my handsome cheer squad.
Finished in 1:54:54. Not my fastest time, but for only getting a couple good training runs in, I was very happy. This was my 9th half marathon and Mer’s 2nd half marathon. Did I mention she’s 3 months pregnant?!!!
Every postrace calls for a dynamite breakfast, of course, so we checked out of our hotel and went to Mer’s favorite breakfast cafe, Snooze.
I should also mention that the wait for this place was longer than it took me to run 13.1 miles. Yeah, we waited outside for over 2 hours, not knowing it would be that long when we first arrived. But it was good.
We headed back to Denver, took a much needed nap, watched Ironman 2, and flew back home the next day. Colorado was good to us. We had a blast. We’ll for sure be back for more. I’m hoping next time I can go snowskiing.
