My Big Fat Tuesday

Jesus Took the Wheel!

***UPDATED: We have completed fundraising, but you can read more about what motivated this journey in a post of called Q&A.***

I'm writing today to follow-up on my 7QT post this past Friday where I mentioned possible training to become an FCP. Y'all, God has a bulldozer. A big one. And he ran it through my entire world this past weekend and right over top of me on Monday.

I'm officially an applicant, waiting to hear if I've been accepted (and if I qualified for a very generous scholarship through OSV to fund half of it!). So that's how I will start Lent this year...on a journey, waiting in anticipation...how Catholic?!

We learned about the opportunity on Friday when I posted about it. I dipped my toe in the water enough to ask for more information and what I received from the other end of my message was a very sincere, heartfelt cheerleader encouraging me to apply, despite the odds being truly stacked against me. You see, it was a holiday weekend and the application was due on President's Day Monday (yesterday). There were 16 pages between the two applications, a handful of essays, a need for a recent picture, and THREE written recommendations (including one from my pastor).

All of that might sound unlikely, but not *completely* impossible until you add in all of the other extenuating circumstances that surrounded this weekend. Plans to be out of town this weekend (celebrating my birthday with friends), a giant snowstorm that rolled in with fierce gale-force winds and took out the power, internet, and phone access. So add no power, below zero temperatures, and no access to phone, printer, or computer...and you'd have an uphill battle, right?

Add in my vehicle not starting, needing to have written proof of funding commitments to the tune of thousands of dollars, no ability to scan the documents (if I found a place open to print them!), a dead battery on my cell phone that had no calling credit on it, and a closed parish office where the pastor had the day off.

NOW you are starting to get a sense for how big God's bulldozer is, right?? :)

So while the Holy Spirit interceded and literally pummeled every last single one of those obstacles, there is still a need for fundraising. We were not really in a position to take on this challenge financially right now, but all of the people we know (including 3 Na.Pro doctors) encouraged us to push ahead with this rare scholarship opportunity (and because I have the time to focus on studying right now). As much as it pains me to ask, I would be grateful if you prayerfully considered contributing. We have opted not to use a go.fund.me account right now (they take a HUGE % cut from the donations, and I have a terribly unique name and this would be the only search engine result for me). There are a number of important practical reasons why we didn't choose that route to "crowdsource" things, but one of them really is that I'm blogging anonymously here. It's awkward wanting to start a ministry and not being in a place financially to fund it. So...my compromise was adding a Pay.Pal button attached to the top right of the page. You are free to ignore it, use it, pray about it, ask me how fundraising is going, anything! Praying my readers won't be upset at me asking here...

No donation would be too small, and I am deeply humbled for anything that is offered (including what has already been offered to us to get this far!!). Christ has just made it clear what He wants us to be doing right now...so we are listening and trusting and following and hoping our readers will be supportive in prayer first (and only financially, if you feel so called).

Thank you for considering spiritual and tangible help. If we are fully funded and accepted, the immersive education program that would begin in less than 3 weeks. If for any reason we are not accepted, we will be promptly issuing full returns of all of the donations we have received.   With that said, we will also keep you updated here on the status of my application. We expect to hear back soon and we already know that it was received with great hope and joy and the committee is actively reviewing it! (UPDATED: I was accepted!) So far, our doctor, a physician's assistant, a nurse, my own FCP, a local FCP center, a famous Catholic apologist, and two friends have been generous in donating to this effort.

Now...with that all out of the way...where are these gluten-free pancakes I'm supposed to be stuffing my face with?? ;)