Stop for a minute and smile...

Its absolutely crazy to think that in 80 days I will no longer call this room I've lived in for the past 10 months, "my room." Instead I will be living in a house with happy children and sharing a room with Miss Taylor. I will be living in a land of green and a land of adventure.

In 80 days my life is going to change drastically. In 80 days I will say goodbye to people I don't really want to say goodbye to and leave for a place I never thought I'd journey to. In 80 days it all begins.

And I think I am ready.

Yeah, no. I am definitely not ready quite yet. I need these next 80 days desperately. I need 80 more days of: being an RA, living on campus, being in college, spending time with my family, hanging out with friends, building relationships with residents, and for heart preparation.

So thankfully I still have those 80 days.

Although, tomorrow I will only have 79 more days.

Say what?!

I'm moving to Uganda in 80 days.

Is this real life?

Yeah.

New News

1. Taylor and I will be flying to Uganda together! Her and I are quite excited for this. Taylor is flying out of Texas, and I out of California. We will be meeting up at the departure gate in Brussels. It will be nice to have our final flight to spend time together before we begin our adventure.
2. I no longer have a layover in London, but I am okay with that. I will get to fly with Taylor instead! 
3. Taylor and I are co-teaching in the same P3 classroom!
4. Our class consists of 8 students, which is small, but they all desperately need help.
5. Because there are two of us in the classroom, we will be able to rotate in the classroom so that we can participate in the mission outreaches. We will have just one of us in the classroom during those times. Taylor and I are excited to participate in these trips outside of getting to teach. 

It's been comforting being able to talk to Taylor. I am am so happy I get to arrive in Uganda with her and just to be able to spend our flight together. It's beyond exciting to get to know the person I am going to be traveling with, teaching with, rooming with, growing with, learning with, spending 24/7 with for three months. 

I cannot tell you how excited I am to leave for Uganda. I was excited when I first decided to go, and then got into a stage where I was sad to be leaving college, my friends and family, but now I am just completely ready to go. I am back to thinking about it constantly. Especially since Sherry has been posting some awesome photos from Uganda on Facebook recently!

So there you have it. A few new updates. Taylor and I have a decent amount of information to sort through at the moment. Once we have done that we are going to discuss and see if we have questions to send Sherry's way. I am sure I will have more updates once we've done that.

Taylor

About two months ago, Sherry gave me the email of the girl who would be teaching with me in Uganda. I was absolutely beyond excited to finally have a way to contact her. I shot her an email but didn't hear back from her. I had sent an email to her school email from my personal email, and many times when I send from Yahoo to a school email account it sends it to the spam folder. I thought that maybe this had happened.

I just gave it some time, because I didn't want to keep bothering her. But yesterday, she emailed me back! And yes, my email had gone to her spam folder and she had just randomly found it. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see Taylor's name in my inbox!

We have been emailing back and forth all day long and are getting to know each other. Taylor is from Texas, is also going into teaching, and loves the younger kids as I do. We both are really comforted to know that we are going into this journey together and that we will have one another through it all.

I am so excited to get to know Taylor more and to see what God has in store for the both of us.

I have a feeling that we are going to become good friends.

Funding progress: $2,030/$3,200

I am only $30 away from being able to purchase my plane tickets. I am still a good $1,200 away from being able to actually live in Uganda. I need to be able to pay for food, transportation, as well as room. If you know of anyone who would be willing to support me, please send them my way!

I also finally found the perfect journal for Uganda. I have already begun writing about my preparation.

And lastly, only 114 more days!


Prayer Requests:

• For support. I still have a ways to go to be able to actually live in Uganda.
• I am taking five classes this semester, which includes about 40 hours of field work in classrooms, a Perspectives class, and then of course there is being an RA. Let's just say my schedule is crazy. So prayer that I can stay focused, get done what I need to get done, all while preparing to go to Uganda.
• There are children who need sponsorship for schooling at the New Creation Centre.

There you have it folks

^ This is how much some lovely people have helped me raise so far ^

My round trip plane ticket costs $2062.30

I have raised $1,890.00

And for those of you are not so great at math, like myself...

(My mom and I were shopping for a baby gift tonight and she asked me to add up how much we had spent so far as she scanned the items we had chosen. I reminded her that I had received a D in math this past semester and that I would be using my calculator. I am not ashamed, I am terrible at math and that is that. I have never received lower than an A on a paper, so I think my writing abilities make up for my lack of math skills. Besides, making me do math in anything besides base 10 is trickery I say. Ain't nobody got time for that!)

...that means I am only $172.30 from being able to purchase my plane tickets!

My total amount needed for Uganda for plane tickets, transportation to and from the school, food, and living accommodations is ~$3,200

So again, for those of you who prefer writing papers over math problems, that means I have ~$1,140 left to raise for Uganda. 

Basically I can get there, but will have to not eat, walk to the school, and live on the streets. My mom wouldn't like that because she would be even more scared of me getting Malaria than she already is. If my mom had it her way, I would wear footie pajamas, gloves, and a bee keepers mask my entire time in Uganda so that there would be no chance of me getting Malaria. 

Anyhow, I just thought I would keep you all updated since I said I would once I got my totals!

Prayer requests:

• For financial support. I have raised so much already, but I still need a good amount to be able to have a home, food, and transportation while in Uganda.
• For me to have the motivation to figure out the rest of my immunizations and such.
• For my heart to continue to be in the right place as I finish my last semester of college while preparing for this big adventure.
• And well, probably for my mother as she worries about me getting Malaria. 

Merci beaucoup mon amis.

That means, thank you very much my friends, in French.

Yes, I am still trying to make up for my lack of math skills.

I remembered this from my French classes. 

Thank You!

Thank You!!

I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me prayerfully and financially.

For those who have supported me financially and have not heard from me, I have sent you each a personal letter. Unfortunately, my mom informed me that some had been sent back to me for who knows why. I am living at school, so once I get back home I will get those back out to you. But I want to say thank you and just let you know that I appreciate you and all you've done for me!

Funding update: I do not have an exact number for you because I have that count at my parents' house. Although when I was last home, I was only a couple hundred buckaroos away from having my flight to and from Uganda funded. Since then I have received more financial support, so I should have a number for you sometime in the near future when I am back at my parents' house.

Other updates: I was emailing Sherry about a few things recently and she gave me the name and email of the girl who will be going to Uganda with me! Her name is Taylor. (I was excited about that since I am a massive Taylor Swift fan). So, it was kind of perfect. I don't know much about her yet since she hasn't replied to the email I sent her. (She's probably enjoying her winter break!) What I do know is that she is also graduating this year and is from Texas. I am excited to talk to her and get to know her. I am also just excited to know that I am going to have someone there who is the same age as me with the same goal in mind.

I have also been putting together a binder full of worship song chords so I will have songs to play for the kids in the New Creation Home. So if you would like to share your favorite worship song with me to add to my binder I would absolutely love that.


Anyhow, thank you again for all of your support. I am absolutely chuffed to bits! =]

Support Update

It has been roughly two weeks since I sent out support letters and God has already provided me with $975. I am nearly 1/3 of the way to my goal of $3,400. Thank you everyone who has given so willing to allow me to travel across the globe to share the love of Christ with a classroom full of 2nd graders. Also, thank you for your prayers. It all means more than you will ever know to me. To be able to follow the plan God has laid out for me makes my heart so happy. Thank you!