This weeks “dream” challenge was to “Find a God-sized dream story that inspires you and share it with us”

Well this is an easy post to write because I have some amazing dreamers in my own “backyard” if you will!

Both of my parents are in the medical field – in fact they both went to the same college and graduated as RN’s.  For a long time my dad worked in a more administrative job and wasn’t seeing/helping patients as he had wanted. So when I was a teenager he made the scary decision to go back to school to become a Physician’s Assistant (PA).

And the college was in a neighboring state – so both he and my mom had to make sacrifices. But she supported him so that he could “chase” his dream! It was pretty awesome seeing him graduate and get a job doing what he loved – helping others!

For many years while my siblings and I were growing up my mom didn’t work much – well let me rephrase that – she worked hard for our family at home but didn’t work much out of the home! 🙂 And I remember that she was always there after school when we came home.

But when we were all out of the house and on our own she got an opportunity to teach nursing classes for a local University. After she started, the University changed their “rules” a bit and required that all teachers have a Masters degree.

So when my mom was in her “29’s” 😉 (right mom?!) she went back to college and got her Masters!! When I think about people chasing their dreams I think about my parents. It didn’t matter their ages, they recognized there would be sacrifices…and they knew it wasn’t going to be easy – but they just did it!!

In 2009 they stumbled across what would become another dream….

They were traveling in MN and got “lost”. They stopped at a diner to eat and they saw this advertisement for something called Kids Against Hunger. It was an organization that was using volunteers to package food to be sent to starving children.

My dad has a huge heart for missions. He has been all over the world of various mission trips and has even taken my oldest son with him to Haiti twice. He has seen first hand the devastation that hunger causes and knew that they needed to do something.

So they took some of their own retirement money and started a satellite KAH site in Sioux Falls, SD!!

From August 2009 through August 2012 the Sioux Falls site has packaged over 2 MILLION meals! Meals that have been shipped to Haiti and meals that have been given to the local backpack program for kids in the school system.

Talk about taking a seed, planting it, praying for growth and seeing major return! And what is so awesome about all of this is that my parents have not “profited” from the success of KAH. They don’t get a salary or get to keep a portion of the donations for themselves. All donations go to paying for the different products that go into the making of the meals.

And it is making a difference in the lives of children.

Proud isn’t a big enough word really – but I am constantly inspired to do more, to give more – without the expectation of gain in return, because I have watched my parents be that example…these can be my “lessons” as I follow my own God-sized dreams.

Sometimes I get depressed and feel like things aren’t going fast enough….but in going through this process of reflection I am encouraged that sometimes the “dream” doesn’t happen on our schedule…but the wait is worth it!!