Westside Ropieckis

What makes a man a "westside Ropiecki" you may ask. Well, this is a complicated question with a long answer. But we shall disect its meaning together.
First, and probably most important, you must be a Ropiecki. Either by birth or you can marry into the fun loving, crazy clan that is our family! I, of course, did the latter and am so happy that I did.
The second part is a bit trickier. We live east of all local Ropieckis, so current geographic location has little to do with this title. What it really boils down to is the future plans of this particular sect of Ropieckis, Michael, Rachel, Aubrey, Anna and Ella.
About a year ago, Michael and I both had a burning desire placed in our hearts for the people of the world who may not know Jesus. We were also overwhelmed by the poverty, the death and hurt that so many people who share our planet endure daily. We have always had a love for the orphan, but we found that too was magnified. We didn't understand what it meant or what exactly we were supposed to do with this, but we knew sitting in our beautiful home surrounded by our things wasn't going to be enough for us any longer. A verse that has recently struck me hard says "Don't excuse yourselves by saying "look, we didn't know." For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew." Proverbs 24:12. HE KNOWS, WE KNOW!!! Scares the crap out of you too, huh?
So we knew and.......knew that he knew we knew (are you keeping up?) so we began to seek out the best possible way to do something! We didn't know where, but we figured we would begin by picking someone to send us. We went through the application process for several different organizations but never really had that "aha" moment. However, we chose a large organization that seemed to have their act together and began really pursuing a career with them. But we still had this niggling. This organization had a need in Africa, West Africa to be precise. And we were excited, elated! Yay, we picked a spot!
We then, through a series of events, found ourselves meeting with  Just Hope International, not our chosen organization. Why? We had picked an organization. We had prayed for West Africans. We had filled out loads and loads and loads of paperwork. But here we were hearing about people we had never met, children whose faces we hadn't seen, a country that needed so much and we were falling in love. That burn got hotter and we felt a pull that we knew was God.  Before the end of lunch Michael said, "I'm on board, let's go!" And by the end of lunch, I was ready to pack!
So, where are the Ropiecki's going, you ask. It turns out we were praying for West Africans for a reason. God was leading us to that place and over the past year growing a love for that country and that specific region. We are readying ourselves for Sierra Leone. Which is the formula for making Westside Ropieckis! We are still working on living up to our name, but we plan on enjoying the ride!
Mike and I are ignoring the impulse to head out next week and take the whole crew and instead doing the responsible thing and planning to go in February (just us two) to see the orphanage, the people we hope to affect and the land we hope to call home. We can't wait!! Our kids are so excited too. I was pretty sure it was going to be a hard sell, but I am blown away daily by the love and excitement my kids have for this next faze in our lives. So, check out justhopeinternational.org and therainingseason.org. You'll want to come with us, I'm sure!
I plan on keeping everyone posted here as we make decisions and progress in this venture. I will thank you up front for the prayers and thoughts during this process, we covet them.

In Him,
Rachel