I'm going to Africa!

I'm going to Africa. I'm going to Africa. SERIOUSLY I'M GOING TO AFRICA??!!!
Yes, this summer I will be traveling to Zambia Africa for around 12 days on a medical mission trip. I will be traveling out of Chicago with several other nurses to change lives in Zambia. I'm pretty sure that one of the biggest lives that will be changed will be my own. I have so many things that I think will happen while I'm there and what I will be doing but I know that God's plan in this trip is so much bigger then my own.
It has always been a dream of mine to be involved in medical mission trips. About a year ago a friend of mine who I used to work with posted an organization on her facebook called Nurses for Africa. So I was curious to learn more about this organization, I read a little online and of course you can sign up to inquire more information so I thought sure why not? Within a week I had a call from a lady within the organization and she wanted to know if I was interested in going in August 2011 or I could wait and go in 2012. I knew right away 2011 wasn't going to work since Blakely at the time was only about 4 months old and I was planning on nursing her until a year, but I thought sure 2012 would work out great! The lady asked if I had any questions and at the time I really didn't, I just told her I would talk to my husband.
Super Dad was supportive of the idea and thought it would be a great opportunity for me and he knew I had always wanted to go.


The days went by and in fact months went by and I never called the lady back. I really had my own questions of: Can I really leave my babies for 12 days?? (Seriously I've never even left them for 2), Can Super Dad handle the girls for that long by himself?? Can I raise the money to be able to go?? and What if I'm pregnant before then?? Even with all of these questions running through my head Africa kept coming up. I couldn't make myself delete the voice message I had from the lady with her phone number and it was just constantly in my thoughts. In September I decided to go to bible study on Monday nights at church and we started the study Discerning the Voice of God, by Priscilla Shirer. When asked something about where we might be having trouble Discerning the Voice of God the first thing that came to my mind was the mission trip to Africa and I felt it was really weighing on my heart to get in contact with this lady from Nurses for Africa. I got on my gmail account to see if I still had her email address and sure enough I did so I thought well what can it hurt I will just email her and go from there. I didn't hear anything for a couple days and thought well I did what I was suppose to do and didn't hear anything so I was at peace about the situation. Then I got a message back saying yes we are planning trips for 2012 and applications will go out in October so I will send you an email in October regarding the application. October came and went and there was no email about applications so I thought oh well I guess it is not the right time for me to go with such a young family. I had mentioned a while back about the opportunity to another nurse and in early November she asked if I was still planning on going. I told her no, I hadn't heard anything more from them so I didn't think it was going to work out. Seriously that night I got home and there was an email from Nurses for Africa for the application process. I still kind of stalled and on Monday December 12th, 3 days before I was suppose to send in my application I asked my bible study to pray for my decision, we also watched a video from Priscilla Shirer that mentioned Africa and then one of the ladies sitting next to me pointed out I was sitting right in front of the Map on the wall which is a map of Africa. I knew I had to send my application in and let it go from there. If I got accepted then I would go, if I didn't it wasn't the right time. I was at peace with it either way.
And now it's official I will be going to Zambia Africa. Exact dates are not set but it will be sometime between June and Sept 1. I am really excited about the opportunity to serve and meet new people. I ask if you are reading this to continue to pray because a lot will happen between now and then, and I still need to raise enough money for my travel cost.