13.1 for Nate!

On Saturday, 31 people joined together to help bring sweet Nate home from Bulgaria.  We raised over $2800 to help Clay and Jenny adopt their son and ran a crud load of miles in the process...!! Totally worth it.  The Chosen Marathon and Half Marathon gives 100% of the proceeds to adopting families. And you get to pick what family you are donating too.  It was SO fun seeing almost our whole life group at 6 am ready to run for a long, long time.  All for the same purpose. 

I decided to run without headphones so I could attempt to pray for Clay and Jenny's growing family.  It was a sweet time and I even met a few adopting ladies on the route.  One was expecting to pay $35,000 to bring their daughter home from Ethiopia and was two years into the process.  Adoption is definitely not for the weary or the faint of heart. It is for sure the heart of the Lord though.  He provides.  The money.  The patience.  The selfless and redeeming love of welcoming a stranger into the home.

 

1229 calories burned?! The madness! I made up for it real quick with two orders of chicken minis, Las Palapas for dinner and lots and lots of snacking that day, and the next.

Whitney's toenails are literally falling off.  That's dedication. I told her to take a picture to show Nate on his 13th birthday.

 

 The race was in New Braunfels.  IT WAS GORGEOUS! What a great distraction.  The hills were pretty fierce though.  My quads are still hating them.

 

Almost 200 miles trained for this race.  Whew! I am so thankful to be a part of this adoption and I can't wait to meet that precious Nate.