My Half Marathon for Eagles Wings Children's Village

I have decided to once again run the half marathon in Winnipeg on June 16 to raise funds and awareness for a housing project at Eagles Wings Children's Village.

Why am I doing this?  Quite simply, because this is a cause I believe in with all that I am.

Last time I ran in 2011 I raised money for the Family 3 Housing Project.  The children are now living out at the property and they have completed 2 eco-san toilets (that I designed!), a dining hut, a girls hut and a boys hut.  However they still need to raise funds to build an additional girls hut, boys hut and house parents house.

So, I'm lacing up my runners and hitting the pavement again this year to see what I can do to help.

When I went to Uganda in 2012 after running my first half marathon, several of the kids told me they knew I had run a race for them and said thank you.  One little boy, Fred, looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said "Auntie, did you win?"  Well not quite, but I did finish and that was the goal:)

Anyone who has run a long distance race knows that last mile is run on iron will.  Last time I ran, I rounded the corner with a little over a mile to go and the thought of putting one foot in front of the other seemed nearly impossible.  My lungs were burning and my legs were heavy, and all of a sudden this guy I had never seen before in my life looked at the name on my bib, got right up in my face and screamed at the top of his lungs "YOU CAN DO THIS JAIMEE"  That was the push I needed to finish.  Likewise, I'm sure there are days these children I love struggle to get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other. I want to be someone they see on the sidelines cheering them on and letting them know they have what it takes.  Will you join me?

If you would like to sponsor me, you can donate on-line at

http://www.eagleswingschildrensvillage.com/

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Donate Via Paypal."  No paypal account necessary.  Before finalizing your donation, please click "Add Special Instructions to EWCV" and write "Jaimee's Marathon" in the box.  They will direct the funds to the correct project.

Donations over $20 will be issued a tax receipt at the end of the year.

Cheques with "Jaimee's Marathon" in the memo box can be mailed to

Eagles Wings Children's Village

712 - 133 Niakwa Road
Winnipeg, MB

R2M 5J5
Canada

Some of the Family 3 Children enjoy their new housing situation. Completed huts seen in the background.

The nearly completed boys hut.  It is now completed, sorry I don't have a more recent picture!

The completed dining hut.

Nearing the finish line in 2011

Some Days are just meant for writing. . . and today is one of those.

Looking back now, I realize there are many things people never told me. Some days I wonder what I will see when I look back on me 30 years from now. What will I know then that I wish I knew now? As I sit here in the now, I think about the future, but I ponder the past. No one told me that going overseas would change so much of me. That after being in Rwanda, countless nights later I would close my eyes and still hear those stories, see their faces and feel their pain. That little girl I passed in India?  The one I’ve talked about before, whose eyes were blinded intentionally so she could beg more effectively. I walked passed her and I remembered watching Slumdog Millionaire, only this time it was real and she was right there in front of me, close enough to touch.

Here I sit, 3 weeks home from Uganda. Somehow coming home this time is different from the times before. I’m reminded to become a hunter of beauty, to find wonder in small places where no one else does. And somehow, sometimes, I find myself succeeding. I ski through the woods and my dog Wilson looks up at me with a mischievous grin. I love her wild. And then the joy, that untamed joy and thankfulness is followed by guilt as I think about the challenges of where I just was and I miss my friends there deeply. How do I bridge the gap of where I am and where I just was?

How do I become that person God intends me to be? I realize that sometimes His plans are different from mine. I certainly didn’t think I would still be single by this point in my life. One day as I was complaining to one of my good friends about my seemingly perpetual singleness, she looked me deep in the eyes and told me never to let being married get in the way of the way I love people, or the things I do overseas. That day she challenged me, she made me realize that whether I get married or not I can be one of those people who gets up and lets God open the hands and hold my heart. As one of my favourite songs says I can learn to stand with arms high and heart abandoned. I can learn, am learning, how to be called to holiness, yet to still love people in a way that says I can listen and accept who they are fully and completely without judgment. To let people know that even though our life experience may be vastly different, I still know and understand what it means to be human. All this, it will take all of life to learn, because I know I will fall and have to find my way back up time and time again. And so I look forward, challenged to keep finding joy, to fight for peace and to learn how to live fully present to those around me even when parts of me live across the ocean even still.

God Speed,

Jaimee