The race is over!

The Chosen Marathon for Adoption was yesterday!  As an adoptive family, the experience of being part of this race was amazing.  When we learned of this months ago, we debated and prayed about participating...on the one hand, we are runners and running in a race to both raise adoption awareness and to raise money for our adoption made sense.  On the other hand, as someone who sometimes struggles with accepting help from others, we debated getting others involved in the adoption in this way.  In the end, we decided this was a great way to use a hobby (and passion, in my case) of ours to educate and get others involved in an even bigger passion... our passion for the children in the world without a family! 

Now that the race is over, I think I can honestly say that this race was an amazing experience!  As a runner, I usually walk away from races with a runner's "high" but yesterday's experience was different.  My high was not about what I accomplished (although I will proudly tell you that I came in 1st place in my age 30-39 age group for the full marathon) or about being proud of Brent for completing his 2nd half marathon, which is no small feat.  My high is about everything else this race was about.  The race raised $150,000 to help adoptive families afford the high costs of completing an adoption.  The race gave me a chance to see other adoptive families and hear about the passions of others who are adopting.  I saw many volunteers very sacrificially give their time to support the race as a whole and our family personally in our adoption journey.  And, Brent and I experienced the support of our friends and family in an amazing way.  I know that many special people in our lives love the child who will soon be a part of our family, even though none of us know who he or she is yet.  The generous donations of our friends and family have raised more than $3500 so far toward our adoption.  Also, five of our friends: Joel Verinder, Allison Parker, Gene Wilkes, Mark Housewright, and David Morales, took the time and energy to train and then travel to run with us on this special day.  We feel very loved and supported.

As I ran toward the finish line after running 26.2 miles, the street was lined with large posters with photos of adopted children, reminding all of us of why we were running.  Seeing the faces of those children and receieving a unique finisher's medal (a bracelet made by children in a Haitian orphanage) gave new meaning to why I was running.  This race was not about me or Brent, it was about all of the children in the world who need a family and about the chance to be a part of something that is taking a small step toward helping give a family to some of those children. 

 People wrote messages about why they were running on these posters, which were

 displayed at the race!

 Dinner out with Allison and Clay Parker and Baby Deacon the night before the race. 

We stayed with Mark Houswright.  David Morales, a friend we havent seen in a few years, travelled from Corpus to run with us!  It was great to see him.  

 Getting ready to run the morning of the race.  Our pastor, Gene Wilkes, travelled to run with us. We appreciate the sacrifice of his time and energy on a busy weekend! 

 Team Bowen! Ready to run at 7:00 am.  Left to right:Brent Bowen, Mark Housewright, Gene Wilkes, Ann-Marie Bowen, Allison Parker, Joel Verinder.  David Morales was there, but we couldnt find him in time for the picture!

 After the race: Gene and Mark waited with Brent for me to finish the full marathon after they ran the half. 

 Getting my trophy for winning 1st place in my division.  I can't wait to tell the story of this race to our child one day!