Race for HOPE


At 7:30am this past Saturday, Kevin and I took the first steps of our 13 mile race for HOPE. We joined a team of people from four different states to raise money for Children's Hopechest, www.hopechest.org The week leading up to the race Kevin and I began to doubt whether we would experience the reality of crossing that finish line. All sorts of random aches and pains began to plague our bodies. At one point we both couldn't walk due to some hip pain. Adopting, though, has taught us to just take one day at a time and continue on in faith to what God has called us to do trusting Him with the results. We are very thankful that His plan included us running and finishing the Richmond Half Marathon.
Our team has raised $2.430 that will go directly to providing hope for orphans in Uganda. Thank you so much for all of your donations, prayers and support!! If you would still like to donate it is not too late just go to www.team-hope.com and click on the big red heart that says GIVE.
The race was so much fun. Neither Kevin or I have ever run a half marathon and it was awesome to experience this first together. The first half of the race I just kept looking at him and smiling. We really did feel like we were in a parade...all the people yelling and cheering us on. Okay, so they weren't really cheering us on, but pretending that they were truly helped us keep going! Our joints really took a beating from all the road running and so we decided to hit some of the nice soft dirt along the side of the road. Unfortunately for me, hiding under all those leaves were some really nice holes in the ground. Before I knew what had happened, I was face first in the dirt. There is just no way to play this off when you are running with over 5.000 people. The crowd gasped and as I stood up then all yelled, "SAFE". The knees were sore, but thankfully I was able to keep going. The fact that I fell will come as no surprise to those who have known me for any length of time.
As the miles continued, we both started to hurt but the reminder of what we were running for kept us putting one foot in front of the other. Around mile 10 I realized that if we picked up the pace just a bit we could break the 2 hour mark. Our finishing times were......drum roll..... Sonya: 1:59:49 and Kevin: 2:00:45. Yes, for the first time ever I actually outperformed my amazing husband. Overall it was an incredible experience for both of us and we would love the opportunity to do it again.
We had asked you all to pray for us as we come upon our year mark of waiting in our adoption and enter into the renewal of all our paperwork. Kevin and I had asked God to clearly show us what we are supposed to do and specifically hoped that we would understand where we are to go from here after this past weekend. God showed up, spoke to our hearts and we are moving forward in faith. There are some exciting changes that we look forward to sharing with you in the coming days. Thanks for your support!!

Comments

  1. Love catching up on your journey; especially love that you beat Kevin! Seriously, that is some hard-core running by you two. Looking forward to more updates, I also plan on checking out some of the sites you posted. Thanks!

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