Coco Channel was right about the power a little black dress can have. She probably just didn’t expect it to have the power I found it to have. Try to put into words what looking back over a decade will make you feel and you either need to write a book or you feel at a loss to do so. I can’t believe it’s been ten years since I started my 100 day dress project to raise money for orphans in India. It feels surreal to know that we raised $100,000 when professional fundraisers told me I would never even get to my original goal of $50K. It feels even more surreal to know that the children who were my motivation and inspiration to keep going are now in college. I had hoped my project would change their lives. I had no idea how it would change mine but that’s some writing for another day. India will forever hold a piece of my heart. You don’t have to travel around the world to make a difference. You don’t have to go across seas to show big love. You can do it from right where you are. You all showed me that. Every person that gave demonstrated that to me. From the pennies poured into my hands by children to the call that someone was going to tip us over my original goal with a $4,000 donation….it mattered. An individual can do some pretty incredible things but doing it in collaboration with others means you can have unreasonable goals.
As I sit here contemplating all I wish I could spill onto the page I feel gratitude and amazement at God’s faithfulness with this dream and project. He was the one that put it in my heart and who was with me every step of the way. While I have drastically changed in the past decade He has not. He is still faithful and good and calling me to step outside of my comfort zone to reach new depths of joy, experience, wonder and freedom. You don’t have to be qualified. I was absolutely, in no way, qualified to do this project. But God. He most definitely equips the called. What is he calling you to partner with him to do?
Thank you for all of you who have been here for this journey, both past and present. I can never tell you how much it’s all meant to me. One donation may have seemed little but just like a pebble dropped into a lake creates a ripple effect, so to your generosity and contribution did the same. Don’t be afraid to have unreasonable goals.
If you want to help with the current Covid crisis in India you can do so here. Again, thank you. You help change the world.
For a girl with words I’m actually not sure how to write this. What it comes down to is that I’m so grateful and I’m still a bit in shock. 
Last week I listened to a podcast about a woman who was widowed at 25 and had two small children and a newborn. She said something that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget. She asked the Lord to not let her waste her pain. That stopped me in my tracks. It’s a completely amazing way of looking at grief, pain, and loss.
Recently I had a birthday so here are 29 things I’ve been learning the past twenty something years of my life. I say learning because I’m still growing. (Also if you’re not part of the Dear Wednesday crew that’s where I’m writing weekly these days and I’d love for you to be a part of it! Just 
Phew! So I said I was taking a month off from blogging to work on a project. Well, I have been working on said project but surprise, surprise it’s taking longer than a month. While I haven’t been blogging I have been writing weekly for the Dear Wednesday crew (a once a week email I send out).
When I was ten I had the privilege of going on a trip of a lifetime to Greece with my family and my Yia yia. People had blatantly told me that it was a bit of a bummer that a ten year old was taking the trip since I wouldn’t remember it. Well that was enough for my feisty little self to give a silent promise to my heart that I would soak it in and remember every last little thing I possibly could. To this day it is still one of the most vivid trips of my life and the details I remember are incredible.
“The fact that I’m a woman doesn’t make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I’m a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.” ~ Elizabeth Elliot
We walk through life and experience so many ups and downs and twists and turns. Sometimes we seem stuck in one place and the variance seems small. I don’t know about you but I’ve definitely experienced different seasons of discouragement and challenge. There have been times when I’ve felt stuck in a valley with no hope for any view from the mountaintops.
When we moved a few years back we inherited all sorts or quirks in this new house. Flowers sprung up that we had no idea existed, floor boards squeaked in odd places, the toilet was pink…but it took us a while to realize a few of them. For some reason the bathroom mirror is warped. The realization was long in coming that these mirrors reacted to an object like a funny mirror at an amusement park. You know those mirrors that are endlessly hilarious because they make you look too short or too long or too something-other-than-what-you-really are? Yeah, well that’s our bathroom mirror.