Love conquers fear

Here's some updates from the last month, all of October was really incredible! Chicago Marathon: 26.2 MILES. Done. I ran the Chicago Marathon, October 9th 2011, (almost a month ago now!!) with 45,000 other people. The difference for me was that I ran with an amazing charity- Team World Vision. We raised over $600,000 for clean water in Kenya. What an amazing experience. Every step of the race I tried to focus on why we run, for the kids & families of Kenya to have clean water that brings everlasting life & hope. Ready for the race:

My two lovely running partners: Erin & Jenna

Around mile 15 the heat was picking up, our exhaustion was starting to set in and I was really yearning for some light hearted laughs and a pick me up. Just at the moment I saw the housemates & the kids from our building. So amazing. All of their cheering, smiles, dancing, signs, and just pure love&joy for us was beyond enough to keep me going. It meant the world to me that they came out to cheer. Hannah met me at mile 13 and ran with me until 15 where we saw Gayle&Lauren there with the kids!

Shortly after that my mom, who was visiting from Atlanta for the race, met us at mile 17 to run us to the end. How amazing, right? Thanks Mom!!

And... We finished!!!

Missio-Dei Team World Vision

Running partners!!

Wow, that was so difficult. Just want to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who supported me in this season of training! Running with Team World Vision totally rocked my world, even on the days where it was so difficult to fit in a run. Thanks to my running partners Erin & Jenna for being so positive and encouraging through our season and on race day. Love you! Thanks to my housemates for supporting me through the rough long days and coming out with the neighbors to cheer me on! You ladies are the best. Thanks to my mom, Donna, for coming to Chicago and being involved in the race weekend & running with us!! Best mom award :) & Thanks to all my friends & family who donated to our fundraising for clean water in Kenya, you are bringing clean water & everlasting life to these families. May Peace be with you & may you be blessed ten fold for the sacrifices that you made to help us in our endeavor! Since the Marathon so many great things have been going on! We are continuing to build great relationships at the house just by simply being present and doing life together. The past few weeks we are finally feeling a bit more settled, connected, and just at home. We are really hoping that now winter is coming we can continue to strengthen neighborhood bonds, share more meals, read tons of books with the kids, and keep loving people well. A few photos from the past month @ the community house. The boys upstairs walked with me to the garden to see what our last harvest of the season would be. What a fun Saturday afternoon. Eugene & JeShawn

Just another night at the house. Movies, books, & of course lots of snuggling

Halloween! Eugene dressed up as a dork

Lauren did Jonathan's vampire makeup

Lauren & the upstairs kids, so adorable right??

Nevaeh is growing up too quickly, look how sweet she is! Sierra is such a wonderful momma to her and we could not feel more lucky to be living in the same building as them. Having a little baby really reminds us of how precious life is.

Monday night we had the chance to go out to eat at Native Foods as a house since my lovely mom gave us a giftcard as a ThankYou for us hosting her during Marathon weekend. Such a nice gift!! We really enjoyed getting out of the house for a night and just laughing, eating good food, and reconnecting as housemates. I adore these lovely ladies & could not be happier to be doing life with them! Such a blessing.

Thanks for reading & keeping up with our lives. I'll leave you with this; A prayer that has been on my heart recently 'If we are to be afraid of anything, let it be the fear of not committing ourselves fully to you. Let us fear that the day will pass without our having lightened the load of another. Let us fear that someone will come looking for you and find only us.' May we be people who practice loving others well amidst a culture of fear and violence. Go in peace.

Happy October, It's fall y'all!

With the weather getting colder we sure thankful we moved in the new house this summer to give us plenty of time to meet our neighbors, build relationships, & get settled in. Looking forward to all the things this great month holds! Hoping to have a October potluck here, dress up w/ the kids for halloween, and maybe do some pumpkin baking and carving. Kind of my favorite things to do and now I have a little family of my own to do these things with, different from the 'normal' family of course but I wouldn't change it for the world. My housemates are so amazing. I've been sick with the flu this last week and they have really cared for me. We of course are missing Lauren, who is in Colombia with Christian Peacemakers Team on a delegation trip. Looking forward to her arrival home this Wednesday night! Just a little recap of the last months w/ some photos: The first weekend of September (Labor Day wknd) Hannah's parents were visiting from Portland & we had a BBQ at the house then the following weekend a little house celebration for Hannah

Mary Lou, Hannah, & Rusty (We LOVED having them visit!)

Hannah, me & Lauren

Rusty teaching Daniel (our neighbor) how to grill

Nevaeh fast asleep while we all outback BBQ'n

Last weekend, Saturday 24th was Gayle's birthday! Friday night Hannah, Gayle, & I had cake & watched a movie. We were inturrputed with a surprise guest, Eugene! He had prepared a magic show for Gayle's birthday, how sweet. Fingerpainting w/ the kids

Happy Birthday Gayle!

JeShawn painting a masterpiece

This weekend was quiet relaxing & full of wonderful moments. Sunday was the foodshare that we are connected w/ through LWA (Love Without Agenda) & Mission Year. From the food that we sorted & redistributed this past week I brought home lots of tomatoes to make homemade pasta sauce & try my hand at canning tomatoes, it worked! Also bake a homemade peach&raspberry cobbler from the donation. Yummy! Was another good weekend at the house. One last thing I want to leave you with; This past week a young boy in our neighborhood who went to the highschool across the street was killed. Here is the news clip: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8368596&syndicate=syndicate§ion Go in peace.