The Prone Perspective

I have been swimming so much that I realized something: between my swim training and sleeping combined, I am prone for as long as a full-time job per week plus overtime!  Plus, I've realized that swimming is not a quiet sport.

As tranquil and relaxing as it may look from the pool deck or beach front, swimming is actually a very noisy activity.  I scope the water and notice the glassy, inviting surface of the water before realizing that with the first stroke and pull through the water, my exhaling breath releases lots of noisy bubbles.  Not what you would expect when watching a graceful, peaceful swimmer.  

My expectations sometimes are to stroke long, even strokes, making no splash when my hand enters the water, keeping my head down and pulling with my hand directly under my elbow.  Keeping good form is usually a swimmer's goal since it requires less energy at a faster speed.  With the first length in a pool, I usually notice how loud my underwater exhales are.  You must exhale forcefully enough to get all air out of your lungs while your face is in the water in order to inhale deeply when turning the head to the side.  There is no other way to swim - you must breathe!  If you exhale slowly and quietly, the arms end up stroking four or five times between breaths, an interval much too long for most swimmers to hold when swimming miles.  If exhaling is done correctly - quietly - then it slows the swimming speed remarkably.  I don't have time to allow myself to swim at a slower speed! My ultimate goal is to train at the same pace I need to sustain during the 10 miles.  

Of course, there are quiet moments. After a long day teaching PE outside in the heat and high humidity we've had, I have been looking forward to lying prone swimming the stress of the day away.  After my swimming workout, homework, chores and dinner is done, the feeling of accomplishment and renewal are wonderful and I end up looking forward to lying prone many hours!  The noise of the day is then replaced with quiet solitude, both requiring the same body position, but oh how different the feeling.  Here is a song I've singing while swimming called "The Water" by Johnny Flynn and Laura Marling- love the title and love the song, too.  Hope you enjoy it!

Falling In

This week, I thought I'd share how I fell for swimming, how I fell for God and how I fell for Zoe Ministries.

I fell in love with swimming by nearly falling into a swimming pool when I was two years old! I grew up in a small town in New York and at my sister's  first swim lesson, I decided to jump in, too! The lifeguard had to fish me out and sit me on the side of the pool! The very next week, at her lesson I jumped right back in! The lifeguard fished me out again, but this time, he let me join the class.

I spent my childhood as the only girl at the local Boys Club – practicing technique, swimming endless laps and competing -- and sometimes even beating -- the boys at the club!

Fast-forward 25 years and I am still swimming! I am part of a triathlon club and at least twice a week, we get together at the pool or at the beach to practice technique, swim endless laps and compete. Sometimes I still beat the boys. 

I fell for God when I was ten years old. That same sister who I followed into the pool practically raised me when my parents divorced. She was there for me and took care of me as my parents worked multiple jobs, shuffled five children to school and activities. When I was ten, that same sister died in a car accident. The divorce and the loss of my best friend and sister left me hopeless for a while. But, I had a foundation in Christ and I learned to trust him in my hopeless moments. 

I fell for ZOE Ministries in 2006 when I went to Zimbabwe for a mission trip. Through Zoe, we visited AIDS orphans – children who had lost their parents to AIDS or had AIDS themselves. I am a P.E. teacher at Holly Tree Elementary and I did there what I do here: I taught the children to play. While they were waiting to be seen by doctors, I played parachute games, jumped rope, kicked the soccer ball and painted their faces. I tried to show them how to trust God even in their hopeless moments. In return, I was able to see Christ’s face in the faces of those kids! I was able to work with Pastor Greg first-hand and see his servant hood and sacrifice for the orphans. 

In the past few months, I’ve decided to combine EVERYTHING I love and do something BIG for God. This summer I am going to swim ten miles for ZOE ministries. I am going to swim in the Intracoastal Waterway from the Carolina Beach inlet to Wrighstsville Beach inlet in a little under SIX hours to raise money for the families. My goal is $18,000. That money will directly help feed 20 families for three years. 

Swim for Zoe Life Update

There's a crazy amount of life going on right now.  I love that life gets to be lived by those choosing to participate in its events.  In addition to swimming four days per week since March, I'm trying to fit in riding my bike, running (we'll call it jogging now since I haven't been doing much at all of this), and being there for my husband and sons!

After my grandma's death in February, I didn't know if I had the heart to go through with this mission of swimming the intracoastal.  Her loss left me with two contradicting emotions - great sadness along and the inability to focus paired against knowing my time here on earth is limited and the need to dive into everything life has to offer.  

Each day I faced, each swim workout that approached I had to ask which emotion to choose. I choose to live! I choose to dive in!   Having experienced several deaths now of close family members (my sister, my grandfather last year, and now my grandma this year) I have chosen not to take for granted the gift, such a precious thing, that life has been given to me.  Not only do I do these swims with as much enthusiasm and gusto as I can muster, I am keeping a close connection with my boys (this is the latest picture of my oldest son Nick with his date for the Hoggard High School prom a couple weeks ago), and striving to make my marriage the best it can be!  I am still pushing myself to be a great PE teacher and instructor to my students at Holly Tree Elementary.  I am still planting flowers, appreciating their fragrance and keeping the house organized and clean enough to live in.   What's important to me is relationships with my friends as well.  There's a lot of living to do - let's put forth the effort to live it to the fullest!

Nick & Natalie - Prom 2011

In the News

Last week, we were featured in the news!

Carolina in the Morning featured my suit, my swim and my logistics captain, Ben Bowie, on the morning news! Claire Hosmann and her camera crew arrived at the YWCA before most of the other swimmers in the Tri Club.

Here's part of what she wrote on the WECT website:

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Leanne LaFave will be the first person to swim a 10-mile solo course from Carolina Beach to Wrightsville Beach.

LaFave is challenging herself physically to raise funds for ZOE Ministry, an organization dedicated to transforming the lives of African children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, war, disease, famine and other causes.

Tuesday morning WECT caught up with LaFave during her training session at the YWCA.

She says she created the ICW10 Swim for Zoe to combine her love for swimming with her passion for ZOE Ministry.

CLICK HERE to read the entire story. Plus, there's more to the story! Here I am with Ben:

Swim for Zoe Rotary Presentation

A few weeks ago, I had a wonderful opportunity to talk to local rotary club! On Thursday, April 21st, we were treated by a friendly group of rotarians to lunch and their meeting.   I am sold to the Rotary Club!  What a great group of business individuals who come together to help out their community.  

Speaking to the club came with a little nervousness, but not enough to mask my excitement story the Swim for Zoe event!  Once I started to speak about this mission of God's in my life, the nervousness dissipated and I was able to convey this calling in an understandable way. I really enjoyed this presentation, and I'm hoping they did as well.  Ben Bowie had lots of time to talk about the logisitcs of the channel swim, and had to manage the many questions that followed his talk.  It was an exciting and wonderful time for us to share our thoughts and this mission.  I am so grateful to Alicia and Greg Uhl for allowing us the time during their Rotary Club meeting to present this cause and hope there will be more to follow.  Lots to praise God for - He is and has been -- so good to me!

News Feature in the Star News

Many thanks to Brandon Sneed and his feature article this Sunday in the Wilmington paper. Here's an exerpt:

Leanne LaFave is training to swim the 10 miles from Carolina Beach to Wrightsville Beach. That's equal to about 704 laps in the YWCA pool. And she's doing it to help kids halfway around the world. 

LaFave, who teaches physical education at Holly Tree Elementary in Wilmington, right down the road from the YWCA, went to Zimbabwe in 2006 on a medical missions trip with ZOE Ministry. She gave the Zimbabwe kids a good time, playing soccer, jump rope and follow the leader. She's got an infectious laugh and smile, and she looks like she's in her late 20s when she's really, well, some years older than that. So there was lots of laughing and smiling. At least at first. 

LaFave also helped teach the community how to treat HIV/AIDS, which runs rampant there. She learned some heavy stuff, such as how some men believe that having sex with a virgin can cure HIV/AIDS, leading to unspeakable treatment of young girls that, over here, would land a man in prison.

CLICK HERE to READ the entire article!

Heartbreak and Healing

I don't mean to be dramatic about things.  I am just plain surprised, shocked, frustrated, aggravated and sad all lumped together.  I guess the word devastated is what I'm looking for and this is the story behind my feelings:

A few weeks ago, my boys and I attended the WAC triathlon. This time, I didn't go to compete (so unlike me!) -  I went to support friends and teammates. My boys went to volunteer for their ROTC unit. The great thing about sprint triathlons is that they're short and sweet. Within 45 minutes of the starting gun you can expect the winner to cross the finish line. The swim, bike, run and awards are over in a matter of hours. Those hours are packed with encouragement, jubilation and triumph.

Mitch and Nick and I wrapped up our day at the race around 11am. In those few short hours --  by the time I made it home -- I had several texts asking me if I knew anything about a fatal bike accident that had occured a couple hours prior involving a father and son.   Texting back and texting others got me worried that I may know this pair - the shock occured when a school teacher from New Hanover called to tell me that David Doolittle and his 17-year-old son Trey had been hit by an impaired driver at 9:30am on River Road. Those feelings from the hours before were turned on their head.

The Doolittles and La Faves had a long, lasting and close relationship. We met David and Joy when they showed up for softball practice with our church team.  We hit it off with them immediately since our church was fairly small back then and there were many families our age with children about the same age, too.  There were about 6 couples and our families that became close through church softball, Wednesday evening dinners, Bible study, lunches out after church, Super Bowl parties, children's birthday parties, birth of new babies - you get the idea.  We were a tight group and we shared intimate details of our lives together.  We basically helped raise each other's children and lifted up each other in our marriages.

Life happens -- and over the years, we joined another church, others dropped out altogether. Joy separated from David, found an a great job and moved to Charlotte with the twins. The group eventually disbanded and pulled apart. But, those years were some of the best memories in our family that we have ever shared with others.  We will always hold closely to our children's primary years as the years we spent in such closeness with these other families.  The Doolittles were a huge part of this experience.

One of our best memories was that David wanted to know how to surf and approached Doug for his first lessons.  Being a southern California surfer, Doug was happy to teach David how to surf.  They went surfing often and David felt the divine closeness of God while surfing waves.  He used to sit back, arm around the backside of a chair detailing his latest surfing experience - how the waves were breaking, the line he took on this wave and that.  It wasn't long before Trey took to the sport.  Eventually, David and Trey were off on their own, scouting out the best surf spots around town. David joined Doug on a trip to Costa Rica - and even though he was still new to the sport, was able to catch some great rides due to his athletic abilities.

Trey and Nick were the same age and it was always wonderful to have him around. He had a bright smile, was thoughtful in conversations, always ready for fun and just an easy, good-spirited kid.  We loved him so much!  David was also very thoughtful and shared openly his feelings of salvation with me.  He was confident in his salvation, and didn't believe in the practice of having to do things to be saved. He knew the act of going to church or doing certain things didn't make him a Christian.  He believed in being saved by God's grace through His Son Jesus Christ.  He believed wholeheartedly in his salvation even though struggling in life as we all do.  He was so intelligent, athletic and loved the idea of "sticking it to the man"! I'll never forget that this was one of his favorite lines!  

I am devastated by the events of their bike accident. I am heartbroken that they won't be able to go on their planned surf trip to Costa Rica to celebrate Trey's 18th birthday. I'm angry that they were taken by a drunk and drugged driver. I'm saddened that that we will never have a chance to renew the relationship with David.  I praise God for having known them during the best years of our sons' growing up years -that will remain with me for the rest of my life.  Rest in peace, David and Trey!  I love you both and will forever miss you!