Friends, we are only 9 days into this New Year and already I can't believe how much God has done and is going to do!! It's going to be a crazy (in a good way) year. I don't have much new to report on the job front, but praying for everyone involved as we decide how best to proceed. I am confident that God will work it out in one way or another. I have such peace about the calling He has placed on me that even if I continue to "volunteer" my ministry time, it's totally worth it. But that isn't what this post is about. In this post I want to talk about a different adventure. :)
In March I will be running my first half-marathon. (Well...maybe walking it, but dang it I will try my best to run it.) Now for some people this might be an attempt to compete or get fit or do something healthy. But for me it's about something different. It's about supporting a ministry that has become such an inspiration to me. As Our Own is an organization in India that rescues girls out of human trafficking and takes them in "as their own"...they adopt these girls into their families and love them and take care of them for the rest of their lives. AMAZING.
So, when I heard about this ministry and what they were doing I immediately started looking into ways to support them. That's how I heard about the "I Will Run" campaign. They started a campaign to ask supporters to raise money for the charity and awareness about human trafficking by competing in 10 races in 10 cities, highlighting the stories of 10 different girls. I was hooked. Fortunately, so was Nikki. She was the person who first told me about this ministry and had been reading about the campaign as well. Somehow we managed to get signed up, talk several other people into running with us, and start raising money.
The last two days I've been able to knock out 1.5 miles. I can't imagine how I'll get to 13 miles. But dang it. I will do my very best to do it for Parul.
As I sat down to recover from my run today though, it hit me. I am so blessed. I mean I think I have it bad being a little sore and busting my tail to be prepared for a race. I worry about little things like whether I will be able to help contribute to my family's income or not, when we have plenty and won't be hurting even if I can't pull off a paycheck. I gripe about having to eat the same thing every day when there are so many who may not eat, let alone be able to eat something healthy. As I type, I'm sitting on my comfy couch, in my warm house, using my MAC computer. So many are cold, hungry, homeless, and take a warm cup of coffee over a fancy computer any day.
It hurt to think of how selfish and undeserving I am. It hurt more that I realized I don't really think about these things. I mean REALLY think about them. I became heart broken all over again for these girls and what they have had to endure. I praise God for the ones who are rescued.
My little run may not mean much in the grand scheme of things. But I pray that every time I'm sore, or cold, or feel like quitting, I will remember that there is another girl out there somewhere who is more sore and colder and scared and I will run for her. I will run because others need to know and be spurred into action. I will run because her life means more to me than my own. I will run because if I'm not running then I'm sitting around doing nothing...and nothing is no longer an option.
Friends, I hope you'll take some time today to go check out As Our Own. www.asourown.org They are amazing and you should support them.
My next post will be a look into America's role in human trafficking. I think it will surprise you. I hope it will spur you into action.
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2012
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Fooshee Family Gathering 2010: AKA the Kayaking Debacle
This past weekend Andrew and I headed to Broken Bow, OK to spend time with some of Andrew's family...the Fooshee side to be exact. Tammy and Matt flew down as well and the group consisted of the 4 of us Bancrofts who were able to make it (Charlie was finishing up camp), Grandpa and Grandma Fooshee (Tammy's parents), Aunt Kathy (Tammy's sis) and Uncle Bob, Cousin Gina, Cousin David and his adorable wife Genevieve, Uncle Mike (Tammy's bro) and Aunt Misti and their children (+one friend), 16 people all together.
Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob rented a cabin and we all hung out (the Bancrofts for the weekend, the others for a little longer). Sunday morning was planned for the big river excursion. Aunt Kathy announced that she'd booked us Kayaks and we'd be floating down the river that day. That should have been my first warning, the second one should have been when the Bancroft side of the family all joked about Courtney having an "accident".
The float trip started out pretty successfully and before long we were all pretty capable of guiding the kayaks down the river. Mountain Fork River mind you is a pretty calm river and pretty perfect for float trips, especially for those of us not quite up to more exciting trips that involve navigating extreme rapids.
Many of us spent more time in the water than in the boats, but we were having fun. I only got stuck a couple of times and made it down the water fall (very small) without too much difficulty. In fact, towards the end of the trip, I was pretty proud that I had yet to fall completely over or out of the kayak and I still had completely dry hair! I was looking forward to those good hair after pics. That should have been my 3rd warning.
By the end of the river, the majority of the group had gone ahead quite a ways down the river...that's right the 4 Bancrofts were bringing up the rear,ha-ha. We'd worked really hard by that point and felt that letting the river float us the rest of the way was a great reward. Matt and I were a little bit ahead of Tammy and Andrew (does that really surprise anyone who knows us both? Lol.) and were having a nice leisurely conversation (sort of...for us anyway ;)). In fact, Matt and I could no longer see the group ahead or the mom/brother team behind us.
No sooner had we commented on how calm and smooth this particular bend of the river seemed than it picked up speed at a surprising rate. Now, I'm not sure exactly how we got ourselves in this mess but Matt and I somehow ended up headed for the only opening in the bend at the exact same speed and angle only from opposite directions. I noticed, with some concern, that to get to the end of the river, we needed to curve past a bank of rocks with a huge tree growing in the middle of the river, and through a 4 foot wide gap connected to another bank of rocks. We were not going to be able to go through at the same time.
I suggested Matt try and squeeze through first. He thought maybe I should go. I thought I could see how to go without too much trouble and agreed. And here's where we got in trouble. We tried to make a plan. Bancroft family trend: our plans fail. Epically.
We were still discussing the best way to get through the gap when the river picked up speed once again. We were moving pretty quickly now. And I wasn't quite ready. Neither was Matt.
I was trying to angle my kayak just right when I noticed that at the angle Matt was floating, he was probably going to hit the back of my kayak and mess my angle up. I was still trying to figure out to remedy this when the inevitable disaster happened. (Matt would probably like to interject right about now that me trying to figure out angles was the whole problem...considering he was the only reason I passed geometry).
See, I kinda forgot to keep paddling while I was watching Matt and my boat drifted. As I glanced back up, I realized I was about to hit some rather large rocks. I quickly threw my paddle out in front of me thinking that if I could use my paddle to bounce me away from the rocks, then I'd be ok. Ha-ha. Yeah. As you'll see, we Bancrofts had real bad ideas all around about how to use the paddles to our benefit. The paddle flew out of my hand and my boat hit the tree with great speed and force, horrible combination those two.
The impact with the tree threw me out of my boat and I smacked face first into the tree. The tree didn't like this too much, so it threw me into the water. At this point, my kayak lodged on the massive rock and I was now submerged beneath it.
Now the smack from the tree disoriented me a little and I remember opening my eyes and seeing the boat stuck on top of me. You'd think that this would panic me. I remember being alarmed, but thinking, fairly calmly I might add," OK...that boat has to move or I'm in trouble."
After struggling to get the boat to move, I realized that the situation might be a little more serious than I thought. I pushed against it a few times, but the river was very deep and I only succeeded in pushing myself deeper and the boat didn’t move. I was also stuck between the rocks and couldn't see where to get around the boat. This is when I started to panic slightly. I remember telling myself to think and to not start thrashing around in the water or I'd use up my breath.
By then Matt had managed to get to me and the boat was no longer on top of me. But that tree hit me harder than I thought, because the second I bounced up and took a breath I got disoriented again and couldn't tell up from down. I kept trying to turn my face into the water instead of out of it. This resulted in my breathing in a bit of river and I started coughing. The water was in my face and I couldn't see. Frantically I started trying to keep myself floating (you know the drill...c'mon swim lessons...bicycle man!!).
The next thing I know, the back of my head cracked against a rock...or so I thought at the time. Actually, my rock was Matt's attempt at using the paddle to his benefit :). He was trying to get me to grab it so he could pull me to safety. He didn't realize that I couldn't see him. He successfully whacked me on the back of the head.
After the paddle failed him, Matt realized he was going to have to try and grab me or I was going to drown for real. So, somehow, Matt got close enough and made a grab...he got my head. Better than nothing at all I suppose ;). He pulled me up enough to cup my face and keep it out of the water and then got his kayak through the gap and further down the river.
About a minute later, the current slowed down enough for him to grab my arm and position me more safely against the side of the kayak. It was still deep and fairly swift moving water though and I was just gonna have to ride that way.
I think Matt thought I was hysterical at first because I busted out laughing and couldn't stop. Honestly, I had just calmed down and was laughing at how ridiculous the situation was. I'd made it down the ENTIRE FREAKIN' river and wiped out in the last couple miles of the trip. It was pretty funny.
Eventually we made it to a shallow enough part of the river for me to try and stand up and for Matt to try and stop and make sure I was really ok. Some of our group was already waiting there. Apparently, they were just chilling waiting on us and my kayak, hat, paddle, life vest, and shoe (my CHACO!!! I was so happy I hadn't lost it!!) had come FLYING down the river without a person attached. They were waiting to see who and how bad it was. Lol.
As I was standing there thanking Jesus for my life (and my Chaco!) and Matt was explaining what happened to the rest of the group, Andrew and Tammy came floating around the bend. Matt took great joy in informing Andrew that he'd saved the life of his brother's wife.
My husband’s response was somewhere between: Yep, saw that coming and ARE YOU OK?!?!. Tammy's response: Oh my...Courtney...where's your boat? (Classic Tammy :)) Matt also fessed up to the whack on the head and I readily forgave him. I was just glad he'd been there to attempt my rescue. The rest of the family was appropriately concerned/amused and we moved on down the river to the pickup point.
All in all it was a good trip. Tammy says the Fooshee clan wants to make this an annual get together. I think they might be trying to kill me ;). Ok guys, I'm in...but next time...I'm wearing a helmet!!! Screw good hair!
Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob rented a cabin and we all hung out (the Bancrofts for the weekend, the others for a little longer). Sunday morning was planned for the big river excursion. Aunt Kathy announced that she'd booked us Kayaks and we'd be floating down the river that day. That should have been my first warning, the second one should have been when the Bancroft side of the family all joked about Courtney having an "accident".
The float trip started out pretty successfully and before long we were all pretty capable of guiding the kayaks down the river. Mountain Fork River mind you is a pretty calm river and pretty perfect for float trips, especially for those of us not quite up to more exciting trips that involve navigating extreme rapids.
Many of us spent more time in the water than in the boats, but we were having fun. I only got stuck a couple of times and made it down the water fall (very small) without too much difficulty. In fact, towards the end of the trip, I was pretty proud that I had yet to fall completely over or out of the kayak and I still had completely dry hair! I was looking forward to those good hair after pics. That should have been my 3rd warning.
By the end of the river, the majority of the group had gone ahead quite a ways down the river...that's right the 4 Bancrofts were bringing up the rear,ha-ha. We'd worked really hard by that point and felt that letting the river float us the rest of the way was a great reward. Matt and I were a little bit ahead of Tammy and Andrew (does that really surprise anyone who knows us both? Lol.) and were having a nice leisurely conversation (sort of...for us anyway ;)). In fact, Matt and I could no longer see the group ahead or the mom/brother team behind us.
No sooner had we commented on how calm and smooth this particular bend of the river seemed than it picked up speed at a surprising rate. Now, I'm not sure exactly how we got ourselves in this mess but Matt and I somehow ended up headed for the only opening in the bend at the exact same speed and angle only from opposite directions. I noticed, with some concern, that to get to the end of the river, we needed to curve past a bank of rocks with a huge tree growing in the middle of the river, and through a 4 foot wide gap connected to another bank of rocks. We were not going to be able to go through at the same time.
I suggested Matt try and squeeze through first. He thought maybe I should go. I thought I could see how to go without too much trouble and agreed. And here's where we got in trouble. We tried to make a plan. Bancroft family trend: our plans fail. Epically.
We were still discussing the best way to get through the gap when the river picked up speed once again. We were moving pretty quickly now. And I wasn't quite ready. Neither was Matt.
I was trying to angle my kayak just right when I noticed that at the angle Matt was floating, he was probably going to hit the back of my kayak and mess my angle up. I was still trying to figure out to remedy this when the inevitable disaster happened. (Matt would probably like to interject right about now that me trying to figure out angles was the whole problem...considering he was the only reason I passed geometry).
See, I kinda forgot to keep paddling while I was watching Matt and my boat drifted. As I glanced back up, I realized I was about to hit some rather large rocks. I quickly threw my paddle out in front of me thinking that if I could use my paddle to bounce me away from the rocks, then I'd be ok. Ha-ha. Yeah. As you'll see, we Bancrofts had real bad ideas all around about how to use the paddles to our benefit. The paddle flew out of my hand and my boat hit the tree with great speed and force, horrible combination those two.
The impact with the tree threw me out of my boat and I smacked face first into the tree. The tree didn't like this too much, so it threw me into the water. At this point, my kayak lodged on the massive rock and I was now submerged beneath it.
Now the smack from the tree disoriented me a little and I remember opening my eyes and seeing the boat stuck on top of me. You'd think that this would panic me. I remember being alarmed, but thinking, fairly calmly I might add," OK...that boat has to move or I'm in trouble."
After struggling to get the boat to move, I realized that the situation might be a little more serious than I thought. I pushed against it a few times, but the river was very deep and I only succeeded in pushing myself deeper and the boat didn’t move. I was also stuck between the rocks and couldn't see where to get around the boat. This is when I started to panic slightly. I remember telling myself to think and to not start thrashing around in the water or I'd use up my breath.
By then Matt had managed to get to me and the boat was no longer on top of me. But that tree hit me harder than I thought, because the second I bounced up and took a breath I got disoriented again and couldn't tell up from down. I kept trying to turn my face into the water instead of out of it. This resulted in my breathing in a bit of river and I started coughing. The water was in my face and I couldn't see. Frantically I started trying to keep myself floating (you know the drill...c'mon swim lessons...bicycle man!!).
The next thing I know, the back of my head cracked against a rock...or so I thought at the time. Actually, my rock was Matt's attempt at using the paddle to his benefit :). He was trying to get me to grab it so he could pull me to safety. He didn't realize that I couldn't see him. He successfully whacked me on the back of the head.
After the paddle failed him, Matt realized he was going to have to try and grab me or I was going to drown for real. So, somehow, Matt got close enough and made a grab...he got my head. Better than nothing at all I suppose ;). He pulled me up enough to cup my face and keep it out of the water and then got his kayak through the gap and further down the river.
About a minute later, the current slowed down enough for him to grab my arm and position me more safely against the side of the kayak. It was still deep and fairly swift moving water though and I was just gonna have to ride that way.
I think Matt thought I was hysterical at first because I busted out laughing and couldn't stop. Honestly, I had just calmed down and was laughing at how ridiculous the situation was. I'd made it down the ENTIRE FREAKIN' river and wiped out in the last couple miles of the trip. It was pretty funny.
Eventually we made it to a shallow enough part of the river for me to try and stand up and for Matt to try and stop and make sure I was really ok. Some of our group was already waiting there. Apparently, they were just chilling waiting on us and my kayak, hat, paddle, life vest, and shoe (my CHACO!!! I was so happy I hadn't lost it!!) had come FLYING down the river without a person attached. They were waiting to see who and how bad it was. Lol.
As I was standing there thanking Jesus for my life (and my Chaco!) and Matt was explaining what happened to the rest of the group, Andrew and Tammy came floating around the bend. Matt took great joy in informing Andrew that he'd saved the life of his brother's wife.
My husband’s response was somewhere between: Yep, saw that coming and ARE YOU OK?!?!. Tammy's response: Oh my...Courtney...where's your boat? (Classic Tammy :)) Matt also fessed up to the whack on the head and I readily forgave him. I was just glad he'd been there to attempt my rescue. The rest of the family was appropriately concerned/amused and we moved on down the river to the pickup point.
All in all it was a good trip. Tammy says the Fooshee clan wants to make this an annual get together. I think they might be trying to kill me ;). Ok guys, I'm in...but next time...I'm wearing a helmet!!! Screw good hair!
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