Souf Apricot.

That's what Davis called it last year, as we prepped him for our being away in South Africa for 10 days.  He was 2 1/2, and all he knew was he would get to go night-night at Grammy's, then night-night at Mamaw's, then at Nana's, and then Aunt Mel's, and then at home.  We knew it would be a long ten days, but also knew that this trip required sacrifice for a LOT of people, and our little blondie was no exception.  Jack understood more, but I'm quite certain he thought we'd be seeing safari animals, so he was excited.  And we were bringing him a surprise.

We knew the trip would be amazing, would open our eyes to another culture, and we hoped it would re-connect us with our faith.  After all, we'd watched teams come and go on short-term mission trips at Grace Point.  We wanted to be fired up too.  We wanted to see the world.  We wanted to become closer as a couple.

Not only did God fulfill our hopes for the trip, He revealed much, much bigger plans for us and put us on a path we did not expect.  In the next series of posts, I hope to record the highlights of last year's trip using pictures, diary and journal entries, and vivid memories (and hopefully some guest posts from the huz... no promises) and take you along as we return to South Africa in just 90 days.  The nine months that have passed since the trip have been some of our hardest, and the stories I plan to tell are not all easy to share. 

Thank you for sharing this journey with us, praying for us, and financially supporting us.  To know you believe in us, believe in this ministry, and believe these lives are worth saving means the world to me, to Jeff, and to the precious people of Souf Apricot.

More to come!