Part 1 of the Finish Line of Run Hope!

Hello wonderful friends! I am still having a hard time putting many things into words. It will take a few more days. I am still coming back from the lack of sleep. I still wake up at 4:30 am and find myself running in my sleep! My hearts yearns to continue running but my soul could not be with more peace, love and amazing joy being HOME!!! My family is here, my children are so wonderful. I still can't find the words to thank so many people ALL over America for all you have done for us. Our mission was complete and many children will have a much better life because of all of you. Below is the prayer that was read at the finish line of Run Hope. Pastor Ian Noyes wrote and read it to the crowd and it brought myself and so many to tears. I am left with unspoken words for now but can't wait to share our journey with you.
God Bless and love you all
Lisa Smith-Batchen
http://www.runhope.com/ YOU CAN STILL AND CAN ALWAYS MAKE A DONATION!!! PLEASE CONTINUE TO HELP THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

**Gracious God, there are none whose lives and hearts you do not see.
With love and compassion, you stand alongside the vulnerable and the broken...and you have made us to do the same - to join our lives to your purposes that healing and justice might more and more characterize the world you have made. Tonight we give you thanks for a team of people who have answered your call to address the needs of vulnerable children throughout our nation and the world. We thank you especially for Lisa who has with every mile born their loss and pain in her own body. We thank you for her commitment to share in your heart for orphans. We thank you for her tenacity, her endurance, and her reliance upon you for strength and comfort throughout these past two months.
And we thank you for the witness of this team to run hope through America.
For Sister Mary Beth..., for Mike and Julie Smith... and Mike Evans - for their tireless efforts to support, encourage, and facilitate this amazing achievement, for the countless and often thankless ways that they and others worked behind the scenes to make this possible.
We thank you for the hundreds who ran with Lisa to raise awareness about vulnerable and orphaned children, and we thank you for the thousands more who have been touched by Lisa’s passion and commitment. We pray now for fruit to be brought forth from these seeds that you have sown in human hearts. We pray that you would continue to be at work in us tonight to join this effort to bring hope to children who know little of home and less of family. Gracious God and Father be a Father to these children and awaken us to how we might also play a role in your work to heal and redeem and comfort.
Lord, we thank you for Jay and for Annabella and Gabby, who released Lisa for this
purpose these past two months. We pray their time together now would be all the sweeter for this season of absence. Deepen their relationships we pray and bless them. Heal Lisa’s foot and mend her body. Grant her sleep and rest from weariness. May she find peace in knowing that you take pleasure in her, your daughter, who has spent herself for your glory.
We celebrate Lisa tonight, but we also celebrate you who have gifted her so, and we pray that you would help each of us discover your call upon our lives. Help us to know your steadfast love and your purpose for each one here that we too might grow in compassion and give ourselves also to love one another with great abandon. Indeed, with you all things are possible and you promise that those...
who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
What an example you have given us tonight of one who has lived this hope.
Be glorified tonight we pray. Amen.