My Other Running Buddies

My sweet baby Avery, 10 months old, had other plans than for me to sneak out of bed at 5am this morning to get ready to meet my running buddies. So we went running after her big sisters let for school, and brought our dog, Kobe with us. We ran the beautiful San Clemente beach trail and logged in 4.81 miles. Guess which one of these running buddies cried for 3.5 of those miles???

While she screamed because she was fighting her nap and I tried not to let the glaring looks of judgement bother me from other trail users, I thought about all the defenseless babies that were crying in South Africa today while their mothers literally died of AIDS next to them, leaving no one to respond lovingly to their cry and possibly leaving no living family members to meet their most basic needs. It is absolutely impossible to imagine how it would feel to know that you were going to die and leave your baby all alone in the world. I remember the painful guilt that I felt while on bed rest on the hospital during my last pregnancy. I hated not being able to be apart of the daily business of my girls at home and felt like I had abandoned them. Yet they had a host of loving family and friend that stepped in to care for them in my absence. Children today in Africa are being left all alone to face the world, find food, find safety. I pray for all those sick and dying mothers today and for the children they are leaving behind. I pray that God would mobilize his people to urgently step in and care for those children. I thank God for the people at Acres of Love that are "his hands and feet" to those children and I feel so honored to be a part of the cause. I pray for the hearts of the people that will learn of our mission to run 1ooo miles to raise money for Acres of Love, that they would feel called to pledge their support so that more children can be rescued and given the life God has intended for them.