New Job!

so! i started a new hustle a couple of weeks ago, and i absolutely love it! i'm a paraeducator in an elementary school which means that i am like a teacher's assistant. when i first looked in to this job, i was told "do not work with special needs kids! it is too hard and too stressful." seeing as i was simply looking for a flexible hustle to do in between my training, i thought that working with full functioning children would be the best for me in my situation. however, when i went to apply, the only positions open at that moment were to work with severely autistic children. needing some cheese, i applied anyway, but in the back of my mind, i said a little prayer that i would be assigned to an easier job. God had other plans.
a few weeks later, i was hired as a paraeducator to work in the autism room at amanda arnold elementary school. while i was overjoyed that God had blessed me with a job, i was a little apprehensive of the particular job i would be doing. in my mind, i needed something easy and extremely low-key. but isn't that the complete opposite of how God calls us to serve? oftentimes, i get so caught up in myself and what i need in order to get what i want. the problem with that is that the Christian life is about Jesus first, others second, and ourselves last. i had gotten the order quite mixed up.
as everyday passes and opportunities to glorify God come up, i'm realizing that my life is not about me and making sure that i'm comfortable. instead, it's about others and loving God's people every chance i get. yeah, the autism room is a bit stressful, but the joy that i get in knowing that i am doing God's work and serving others far surpasses having a "low-key" job. also, my job gives me perspective and helps me to not take any of my blessings for granted. i love going to work everyday, and i love that God didn't let me decide what was best for me. yay Yaweh!

Prayer of Jabez

if you don't know, now you know! a few years back in a used book store in ann arbor, i had the pleasure of stumbling across a little book about the prayer of jabez. i had no idea what it was about, but i said, "hey, 2 bucks. might as well." when i initially read it then, it did some amazing things in my life and really answered some of my deepest prayers. why i got away from it, i will never know, but i am officially back and hooked. this short, 4 line prayer is powerful beyond measure. i'm not going to go in-depth and give all the background info because i want to encourage you go and seek out this book. basically tho, it is found in 1 Chronicles 4:10, and reads: "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested." summarizing, jabez asked God to bless him indeed, enlarge his territory and influence, that God may keep His hand on him and continue to guide his paths, and that God would keep him from evil, and God answered his prayer. so simple yet so powerful. i've been praying this prayer multiple times a day for about 2 months now, and my life has truly been changed. never have i had such confidence in my God, in what He can do in my life, and in what He will do in my life. God wants to bless us indeed, and He is just waiting for us to ask Him to. i encourage everyone to get on, and get this book. it's been doing some amazing things in my life like providing me a job, giving me a lot of hours, a possible contract, meeting true God-fearing people, and providing for me when the whole world saw otherwise. simply life changing. here is a link to some more info about it, but try to get the book, and maybe even pray the prayer right now--it's really works.

http://www.allaboutprayer.org/prayer-of-jabez.htm
http://www.thejabezprayer.com/

p.s i prayed this little prayer while i was writing this, and as soon as i finished, i received a phone call answering another one of my prayer requests. true stuff peoples!!

God Is Pretty Amazing

so, my life in kansas has been pretty awesome thus far. for starters, my training is freaking glorious!! i have morning lifts mon, tues, thur, fri followed by an afternoon workout, sat morning workout, and sun pool workout. holler!!!!!!! my lifting cycles have been getting me so strong. we do a lot of lunges, body squats, pull-ups galore, and other things of that sort, and for the afternoon workouts, we do so much core stuff. it's not even funny--not that core sessions are usually humorous. so, yeah...words cannot express how happy i am that i made the move to kstate. my body is transitioning very nicely. all the little aches and pains i had at michigan are light years away, and i'm stronger than ever. ohh!!! so, i love doing pool workouts! i've only had one session, and it wasn't too easy, but i love them anyway!! something about being in a pool just makes everything better. one cool thing we do is called "pool lengths". basically you try (and succeed) to swim underwater (or over) the full length of the pool (25 yards) while holding your breath the entire time. soo cool!! it hurt, but very cool. i love the mixing up of the workouts and the creativity--makes training that much more fun;)
another reason that God is pretty amazing is that He favored me once again, and it looks like i will not have to try to get a 40hr/week job in addition to training in order to survive. i won't know anything for about a month, but there is no doubt in my mind that my God will provide sweetness for me! mmmhhmmmmmm!! as of now, i work part time at a running store, Manhattan Running Company. This job is so much fun cause i get paid to talk about running all day--doesn't get much better. the owners are oklahoma state alum and so cool. yay God (and diana) for getting me this job.
hmm...what else!! so with God's blessing of having more free time, i've been getting involved in so much ministry. oh man!! i love it!! i currently attend StuMo (student mobilization) weekly meetings. it's kinda weird cause it's all college kids, but the worship and message are really good, so it's totally worth it. another freaking praise report is that i went to my first aia meeting on sun!!! omg!!! so good!! i might go on staff and get to pour into student athletes just as my aia mentors poured into me, that would be so cool. so, yeah...i'm kinda on a God high, and it is glorious.
my life has been so blessed so far, and i praise God for all He's done, is doing, and will do in my life. i know kansas state is the right place for me to do God's will, and i feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to move out here. i'm meeting new people everyday (no one has yet to top my mich peeps), and learning a lot about myself and a lot of things. one thing i will say is that i'm gaining a lot of tolerance for people different from me. while mich had some very interesting people considering it's liberalness, ksate is the opposite and quite conservative--not my ideal atmosphere. BUT God's been teaching and showing me all the good things that can come out of this situation. all is good tho. that is all for now. peace, love, and chicken grease.

Stepping Out of The Boat

So, I finally made my move to Kansas, and I am loving it. I remember sitting on my couch in Michigan at 6am on Friday and thinking, "I can't believe I'm going to go through with this." It's crazy the things we do when we step out in faith. I chose to consider training at Kansas State University after receiving great advice from a dear friend, Nicole Forrester. The final decision came after lots and lots of prayer. For those who are unawares, I was going to stop competing after USA's in June and go straight into a coaching opportunity. God, however, had other plans for me. I believe He was sending me a sign when He allowed me to qualify for World's. Taking this sign into account, I started praying and contacting people about the right place to train post-collegiately. Everything pointed to K-State, so here I am.
Patty (my sister, Patrice) and I made the 13 hour trip on Friday and got into Kansas around 7:30pm. I am living with a lady I found on craigslist. Don't worry, I did my research, and she is really nice. I really think God put us together. I'm learning a lot from her, and I hope to shed some of the wisdom I gained in my experiences on her. Patty and I went exploring on Saturday and tried to get a feel for the campus and town. Everything is so close, and I love it. The track is a 4min drive from my house while all my shopping is about 5 min. Glorious!! On Sunday, we checked out this church called University Christian Church. We were debating between that one and another church with an older crowd. I am so glad we chose to go to the one we did because it was just what I needed. They did the Lifehouse "Everything" skit during service, and it was fabulous. The message was about not trying to do hard things on your own and really utilizing the strength of our Savior. This spoke to me because my move has been a bit stressful for the simple problem of making money and finding a job that is flexible around my practice schedule. I've been freaking out because my search attempts have not been successful. In reality, I need to chill out and know that God will provide for me. I know my God has placed me in Kansas to advance His kingdom, and I know that He will provide for all my needs. Thanks God! (prayers to help me remember this are always appreciated).
As far as practice goes, I love everything. I have morning lifts and afternoon workouts, so the day is quite spread out which I like. Everyone on the team is very friendly, and there are high class multi eventers to train with, so it's always win-win. Another thing that I am absolutely in love with is that there are a lot of assistant coaches, so there is never a time when you would train alone. They are also extremely accommodating and understand your schedule and the need to have to have a side job (this helped me calm down a bit about my job situation). While I miss my Michigan family, I know that this is a much better fit for me at this point in my career. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting a decathlete Moritz Cleve, and he was so nice. He kinda took me under his wing, and we worked out together--so fun! He's just getting back into it too, so it's nice to have someone else in as much pain as me, lol. Today is my active rest day, so I took my roommate's dog for a walk and will do some yoga later. My body is loving it!
So, yeah...that about covers my new move. Yay God and the plans He has for me!

Phil 1:14

my experience at this meet has been incredible!!! i apologize for the lateness of my blogging, but we'll play some catch up:

so my meet obviously didn't go as well as i would have liked, but the opportunity to compete at such a high level was incredible. never in my life have i performed in front of over 300,000 fans. not to be cliche, but the crowd was electrifying!! wow!!
so, to run through my hep, i got a pr (personal record) in the hurdles (my old pr of 13.73 was wind aided). it was very exciting because i was first in my heat, and the media apparently loves shoving a camera in your face if you win your heat. onto high jump: i jumped 1.80m (5'11ish). although this wasn't a pr, i was very pleased to be jumping at high heights considering i struggled at 5'7 at usa's. after the high jump, we had a 6 HOUR BREAK. OMG...it was nice to have the rest, but i did not need 6 hours. during the break, they had a full lunch for us and lots of snacks. i enjoyed some pasta and chicken, and then took advantage of the dim lights and cots they had set up for us. it was amazing how well they treated the multi event athletes--very professional. after the break, we went on to shot put. warmups were pretty good, but when it came to the competition, i could not find a rhythm to save my life. i ended up fouling all three of my throws, and my hopes of a top ten finish were dashed. as soon as i fouled my last throw, i kinda felt like someone had punched me in the chest. i then proceeded to slowly walk over to my stuff, sit down, and stare off into space for about 10min. after about ten minutes, i put my head in my hands and tried to comprehend what i had just done. the devastating part was that i had never fouled out in the shot put in my life (there's a first time for everything right?). upon the completion of the event, i began to come up with all the reasons i should pull out of the competition: my right quad was sore, my left hamstring was hurting, my motivation was gone, i would finish dead last in this competition, and many more. after making up my decision to quit, i had a little convo with diana pickler (another heptathlete from usa and my future training partner). diana urged me to finish the competition because if i didn't, i would regret it for the rest of my life. Coach Carol Gilbert-Smith also chimed in although, she didn't really give me a choice, haha. after some soul searching and many tears, i decided to fight on and finish my first World Championship competition. also, i'm a Wade, and that's what we do. So, i ran my 200m in a slow time, but the effort was 110%. i heard i looked good while running, so i'll take that over the time, lol. After the 200m, i did my little cool down jog and hopped on the bus back to the hotel. no matter how hard i tried not to think about it, the tears just started running. it was crazy cause i remember wondering how i could cry so much when i was so dehydrated. anyway, so i was just so sad and down because i thought my meet was going to go so well. it was bad, but i stayed near God the entire time. Prior to stepping in the ring for my last throw and directly after i stepped out of the ring after my last fouled throw, i said to myself, "Bettie, you are exactly where you are suppose to be, and God is in total control". i don't remember how many times i had to recite proverbs 3:5-6 (Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding). i took solace in these words, and even though they did not make the tears stop, i knew that my Heavenly Father had His hand on my situation. it made me even more sad to think about how God was feeling watching me weep. God didn't want to see me sad, but He knew that this had to happened if my life was going to be a fulfilled and extraordinary life. with my trust in God, i cried myself to sleep and tried not to think about the next day or what had happened. warming up for long jump the next morning was good, and the legs were feeling ready to jump far. my first jump was over 6.50, but it was a close foul, the second was a bad, but safe jump, 6.18. i went for the gold my final jump, but my stride was way too long, and i walked through the sand to foul it in order to save face. during our 7 hour break, my motivation was completely down, and i could not wait to finish the competition. in between my naps, i opened up a book my sister had given me called "the power of determination" by joyce meyers. after reading many entries, i realized that although i had not given up, i had given in and lost heart. YOU CANNOT DO THIS. my gaze had slowly shifted from God to my circumstances, and that was definitely not a good place to look. i realized that this was the hardest thing i've ever done in my athletic career, but i also realized that i did not have to do it alone. i could rely on God's strength to carry on. this was all good but even with my new mindset, i still doubted whether or not my body would be able to handle the competition (my quad was extremely tight and my hamstring was slightly strained). at one point, i prayed that i would pull my hammy, so i would be forced out of the competition. during one of my bathroom breaks, i looked at myself in the mirror and said, "Bettie, do you want to finish this competition". my first response was "yes", so i said, "ok. then that's what we're going to do. no more thinking about dropping out. YOU WILL FINISH." no weapon formed against me shall prosper, so i knew my aches and pains were just the devil trying to take my eyes off of God. BUT, i was not having it! "devil, keep my name out yo mouth!" so i went into the javelin with new zeal and a renewed spirit. i ended up throwing a pr of 36.70, and was very happy. with only one event to go, i was excited to finally be done. due to some holdups, we only had about 20min after javelin to prepare to run the 800m. since i was in near last place, i was in the first heat of the 800s. we were on hour 21 of the heptathlon, and boy, did it hurt. i think i started getting bootylock in the first 250 (i normally don't get it until 600 in, fml) whatever tho, i finished the 800 with about 95% effort and was sooo happy to be done. you have no idea...
in the end, i finished two spots up from last place and my score was actually better than that of my first ever heptathlon. i've come a long way, and i have much more to go. God was with me during the entire competition, and i am thankful that He allowed me to stay close (whenever God feels far away, guess who moved?")
last thought, it is crazy how much i grew during that competition and how much character i gained. it sucks going through the hard times, but sometimes, they're the only way we can grow.

My Biggest Meet Thus Far

well, well, well...the night before the biggest meet of my life thus far is finally upon me, and i am so excited. i am very chill, but excited nevertheless. it almost worries me that i do not feel nervous yet, but i'm pretty sure all that will hit me in the morning. my practices have been going very well and my body is cooperating nicely. the past few days, i've had some tightness in my quads and a little twinge in my ankle, but i am not worried at all. no weapon formed against me shall prosper. the way i look at it is that my God has brought me WAY too far to have me fall victim to some little discomforts. yay God! i will be healed by the morning!!
as for my mindset going into this meet, i have two main goals: glorify God and have fun. God has placed me at the 2009 IAAF World Track and Field Championships for a reason, and i'm going to advance His kingdom and have fun along the way. God doesn't make mistakes or accidents, so it was not by sheer luck that i made it here. my God had a plan.
the bed is calling me, but i want to ask everyone to be praying for me and the competitors at this meet. pray that we reach out to lost souls and spread the Gospel to all nations. "Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words" -St. Francis of Assisi. rest assured that i am going to go out there and "get mines". i've never felt so good before a meet before. hells yeah!!! thank you all and details to come;)

Yay blogging!!

hello world!! I originally wanted to start a blog to tell all my friends and family about my travels, but then i got lazy. i decided to reconsider though, so here it is! caution: this blog is going to be real chill, just like me!

so...i am currently in berlin, germany for the 2009 iaaf track and field world championships, and it is amazing. it gets better everyday that i am here, and i stand in awe of my God. this is such a blessing--you have no idea! (some do;)). i am meeting new teammates each day as they slowly filter in, and although i am new to this whole pro circuit thing, everyone is so nice and welcoming. i've been making so many new friends, so it's great.

as far as the sleeping goes, i am pretty much on berlin time which is 6 hours ahead of eastern time, so my body is feeling great and well rested (as i yawn). i have been getting worked on quite frequently with our medical staff, so my body is feeling fabulously and lookin it too;) yesterday's practice involved some hurdles and shot put, both of which went well. hurdles were off the chain and shot put was pretty good. i've been working with the coaching staff here because my coach did not come, and it has actually been very good. they come to the table with a wealth of knowledge, and i am eager to learn, so it's a perfect fit! yay!

as far as sightseeing goes, i think geena gall and i are going to hit up some of the historical hot spots later on today after practice. that will be exciting! i'm excited to see the wall (i'll take tons of pictures, no exaggeration). the city is really cool, and it never gets old seeing mercedes and bmws around like i see fords and chevrolets in the states. so sweet!

i think that about covers it so far. if you think i should touch on a certain topic, feel free to comment.

current bible verse on my mind: 2 Thessalonians 3:3a