Almost to Kharkov!

A few days before I was to retake the bar I got a call asking me if I wanted to go to the Ukraine with my church from Birmingham. Hmmm, not stellar timing on that one. Fully focused on studying and already guilty about the time I had been away from work, my initial and somewhat final response was "can't." Besides if and when I passed the bar, the mandatory swearing in ceremony was during the week of the trip. Yep, definite no.  But for some reason I was willing to risk jinxing myself and called the Committee on Bar Admissions to just see if I could miss. I could; it would just require an extra trip to New Orleans. Hmmm, I could do that.

So I bounced the idea off my mom who's my voice of reason telling me when I need to stop being so busy. She loved the idea. Hmmm, odd.  Then came a call from dad who'd heard and wanted to help with the funding.  Hmmm, wow.   

And the boss-wasn't sure about asking a most generous employer for even more time off.  His words, "I'll support you a thousand times over. Take the time. Go." 

God opened the door and I ran through it! We are currently in route to Kharkov, Ukraine.  And yesterday I was sworn in during a private ceremony in Shreveport. No trip to New Orleans necessary. God is in the details.  The Louisiana Supreme Court Justice from Shreveport heard about my mission trip and offered to swear me in at his office--something he doesn't typically do.  But more than that, he swore me in yesterday so my baby brother and parents could be there (Mom, Dad & Ryan leave for China for several weeks on another mission trip the day I am returning!) May is a big month for the Browns. 

We've landed in Vienna and by this evening I'll be in Kharkov with eight others from Dawson Memorial starting our week of loving on the kids at a local orphanage. No, I don't speak Russian, but I do speak both the universal language of love and the universal language of sports. And I fully intend to do a lot of communicating this week.