Friday, March 02, 2007

Milestones and setbacks



When my sisters were little they had a pair of shoes for everything. There were shiny shoes they'd pull out of the closet just for dancing, school shoes, rubber-soled shoes for running, the next pair of hand-me-downs shoes they were waiting to grow into.... My youngest sister, Tracy, even had a special pair she called her "jumping shoes."
I 've never really vocalized it, but I've always thought of my latest pair of running shoes (which haven't seen much action lately) as my fast shoes. Look at these bad boys with their metallic blue trim and tell me I don't run like the wind when I wear them. Okay, I'll admit it, I don't do much of anything like the wind....maybe more like a lazy summer breeze?
Today I took the fast shoes out for some adventure: instead of twice around the block, we ended up going over a mile! It felt great and I just kept smiling and smiling. Praise the Lord for continued improvement!
While I am celebrating today's achievement, I'm also acknowledging that it's been a bit of a rough week with some disappointments and setbacks. Most notably, my doctor asked me to delay my return ticket to Venezuela by at least 2 more weeks. He'd like to see me be stronger before I jump back into things. (He'd let me if a had a pair of jumping shoes like Tracy, but since I don't...nuts!) It's the wise decision, but it hit me hard. My heart is homesick for my team and students in Venezuela and at first the 2 week delay felt enormous. I'm still not excited about it, but there's really nothing I can do at this point other than make the best of things and continue to rest in the Lord's care.

2 comments:

Mike and Aileen Kindsfater said...

Keep on truckin' Em! Yours shoes do look fast, like whenever you start running we'd hear, "Ka-Pwing!" By the way, I now have a pair of "Smell-like-rot-from-trudging-around-in-flood-water" shoes. Don't be jealous.

Jamie said...

Emily...if I could send you a pair of "let me go back to Venezuela today" shoes I would do it in a heartbeat! Praying for you girlie. Love you.