In two weeks, three days after Maya turns one and three months before I turn 30, I am going to run my first marathon.
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I wouldn't have thought the year I had a baby and started a job in investment banking would be the year I would choose to train for a marathon (what in the world was I doing at 25 years old that had me thinking I was so busy?!). But, I have decided to do it for two reasons. The first likely has to do with proving something to myself (and best left for a therapist?). But, the second, is to raise money for Beautiful Response.

​What does it cost to run an orphanage in Uganda? We just wired money to Uganda for their June budget. We send money for tuition three times each year (January, April, August). In between those months we send money for the general operating expenses of Raising up Hope in Uganda. We didn’t have quite enough money in our bank account to meet all of the needs for June since the April tuition costs cleaned us out. Things just add up! To give you a sense of the monthly budget, I’ve listed out a few of the expenses.

We were short on money in September. We’re going to be short in January. A few checks didn’t come in that we had planned on, so we’ve had to pull the budget’s belt a few notches tighter. We hate it. We hate replying to William’s emails with, “we just don’t think it’s wise to do X when we already can’t afford Y.” Because X is always improving children’s lives in some way, but so is Y.