I'm Back!

Ok so I don't have a great rocord already with this blog thing... but i am going to keep going! I have been crazy since I started being a blogger :-) I live in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe which is on the border of Zambia in the Northwest (I think, I am bad with these kinds of things) of Zim. In the past 2 and a half weeks i have traveled all over... look at a map, I went from Vic Falls to Bulawayo to Masvingo to Harare to Banket (Chinoyi) to Harare to Bulawayo and then finally home! WOW!! SO much got accomplished though, and I have to tell you that i am so stoked! I will be going back to Harare on the 7th to renew my visa and to submit my application file for my work permit, prayers please.... Immigration will review it when I return back to the States and send me a letter in 6 weeks to let me know if I can return and begin working!

I visited my friend Michelle who gave birth to a beautiful baby boy 3 weeks ago and I was so blessed to spend a whole day with her and her family. I was most blessed, by the time I spent in AA meetings and with my fellow AA's around the country. I was in Masvingo for 3 days for an AA convention and let me tell you, I have missed these meetings. I need to remember where I came from or else I will forget where I am going. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the stuff of life and forget that every day that I am alive is a miracle. As I was sharing my story with these new friends, I realized that i have forgotten the girl that I was. WOW, I shared my story at the convention (a speaker had car trouble.... his fuel tank was leaking on the way!) and then was asked to travel to Harare and Bulawayo to do the same. I do not think it was an accident that I shared my story over 6 times in the past 2 weeks in AA and alanon meetings. I think God was telling me something, and I think I need to remember what it was like and what happened. I spend to much of my time these days in 'what it is like now' and that is dangerous territory for me.

It has been over 9 1/2 years since I have had a drink or a drug and it amazes me the journey God has taken me down. For those of you have been with me, you know that it has been a whirlwind and it is hard to believe that 10 years ago i was as messed up as I was an in a hospital after a suicide attempt. Miracles happen, I am living proof.

I am trying to work on an update to fill you all in, but really all I can say is that I am grateful. Now, I have to tell you that with every breakthrough, there is intese opposition. Not only am i grateful, but i also have felt a heavy wave of depression... something that i haven't felt in a long time. It doesn't suprise me, because I know that I am most vulnerable after a victory and I experienced several very important victories in Harare, but also the opposition I have faced from the few people in Vic Falls that don't like what we are doing have been intense since I returned. I try not to let this get to me, but there are moments when I forget who I am, I am start to listen to who they say I am. Why is it that the hurtful comments are so much easier to remember than the good ones?

I love you all, and i know I have been out of touch, but i am back!! Email away, I will respond now!
~R