HomeRun Baby!

Friday night, we held our first annual HomeRun: Lake Country 5K for Adoption. The week was beyond busy with details and preparation for the race. My iphone reminder app was on overload this week!! The to-do list seemed never ending...but we finally made it to Friday--the day of the race.

With our little Toyota Corolla completely stacked with race supplies (and our good friend Jeremy), we booked it to the race site. Soon, we were surrounded with family and friends who had volunteered to help us pull of the event fundraiser. :) My mom and mother-in-law came out early to help me with registration. It was so special to have their help as we raised money to bring home their future grandson!

I was a little nervous as we put the final details into place and awaited the swarm of race participants. And the people came. They came and came. Friends and family and those from the community. Soon, our race grounds were bustling with chatter and music. 

As I was registering people, an older man walked up to me and introduced himself. He explained that when he saw the flyer for the race, he knew he wanted to support our cause. He proceeded to tell me about a young child, who was scheduled to be aborted. Fortunately, the mother was convinced to give birth to the child and to put him up for adoption. Thirty years later, the child had grown into a successful surgeon. My new friend looked at me with tears and said, "Just think, this is what the world would have been missing out on. This child is my son. I adopted him, and I am so proud of him." With that, he plopped down his registration fee and excitedly headed to get ready for the race. What a hero! 

Here's a picture of him with Dave after the race.

To tell you the truth, the days leading up to the race were filled with details, lots of work (race and normal life work), and little sleep. Personally, Dave and I were not in a great position physically to be running the race. Yet, this was more than just a race for us. True, we had worked hard to organize it--But this one was for our boy. Ready or not, we were running this race. 

We all lined up on the starting line (close to 100 people!), and prepared for the "Ready, set, go!" And with that, we were off! The actual run was brutal on me--my tiredness was totally catching up to me!! Yet on we continued. Dave broke ahead of me early on in the race. After about the first mile, my mom (my unofficial personal trainer) came along side me for a little coaching and encouraging. By the third mile, I had caught up to Dave--who was having a hard time himself overcoming the physical exhaustion of the last few weeks. Together, we ran our last mile. It was not glamourous or stunning. Each step was hard, sweaty work. As we rounded the last curve, we were greeted by a line of friends cheering on the finishers. 

My sweet David grabbed my hand to run the last 100 yards. My mom came along side to run the last bit with us. Instantly, the full range of emotions hit me. This race was for our boy. It was so much more than just another run. It was the race to parenthood. A race to rescue our orphan. A race to live out our Christianity. A race to our future. A race, surrounded by loving friends and family--supported and cared for. The tears poured down my face. Hand in hand, we crossed the finish line-a hot mess of tears! 

Boy-We cannot wait 'til you come home!

(Here are a few more pictures from the day.)

Chapman Family, dear friends and race sponsors

Headed to the Kid's Fun Run

                                       

Thanks for helping!

                                   

Some adorable little runners :)

My David and my mom

More friends and helpers

My mom and I

Registration

Run! Run! Run!

Ready to roll on the Kid's Race

Support from friends!

More Friends

My little sister and I :) Her first 5K!

New friends-AND a fellow adoptive mom!

Family shot

Awesome supporters and friends

Sweet family from church, good friends

Ken, the mastermind behind our logo design

My sister and I

More friends

Next Round: An Ongoing Opportunity

Oh boy--I feel like it has been just about forever since the last time that I've updated our blog!! This summer schedule has been a bit of a blur. And although summer always seems to be significantly busier than the rest of the year...I absolutely love it. I am a summer kinda girl. Plus, it doesn't get any better than a good, old Wisconsin summer--filled with mixes of rain, hot heat, sweatshirt days and everything in between. Perfect. I love the variety. I digress.

Anyways, during the summer, I double my work hours as a nanny--so it's a bit of a juggling routine. Between vacations and missions trips, Dave and I usually hold down the fort at church during this time too. Add our adoption and a few fundraisers, and you've got yourself a full schedule!!

The latest thing that has been keeping us busy is actually an ongoing fundraiser that I am pretty excited about. Dave and I have been working hard, along with a few of our A-MAZING friends (Lisa Turner-our race running expert, Ken Young-our creative designing friend, and the Chapman Family-fellow visionaries, sponsorship raisers and movers and shakers)!! With the work of all these people combined, we are beyond excited to put on our first annual HomeRun: Lake Country 5K for Adoption! The HomeRun is going to be a community event--a run/walk 5K to support adoption. This year, all of the proceeds for the race will go toward our adoption; however, in the future, we'd love to be able to support other adoptive families too!! Because of our awesome sponsors (Summerset Marine Construction, The BoatHouse of Lake Country and Boucher Automotive), all of the costs of the actual race (rentals, awards, fees, t-shirts, etc.) are completely covered. That means that each person who registers to participate in our race will be helping us with our adoption costs.

We are striving to create a family atmosphere at this event--along with the 5K run/walk, we've also got a Kids' Fun Run (1 miler, .5 miler, and Toddler Trot), and facepainting! We are also looking forward to featuring a couple different orphan care agencies: Lifesong for Orphans and Evangelical Child and Family Agency of Wisconsin. They will be setting up tables at the event with information for families who might be considering foster care, adoption or even orphan sponsorship. We've got many family, friends and supporters volunteering to carry out the work that day as well. We actually even have one sweet relative who's registered for the race--but will be running his own 5k in Texas that day. We are definitely feeling the love!

God has been so incredibly gracious to provide for each of our needs up to this point in the adoption. We are getting closer and closer to raising the total costs--just a little ways to go yet. :)

If you'd like to sign up for the race, you can register here. (Note: Register soon if you want to guarantee yourself a t-shirt--those who've already registered will have a shirt, but it will be first come first serve on the day of!) If you can walk or run, and you'd like to help us on our journey, come on out to the YMCA at Pabst Farms (head back toward the Miracle Fields) on Friday night! Packet pick-up and day of registration go from 4:45-6:00, and the race begins at 6:30 PM.  Hope to see you there!