My Second Post

(and I guess the titles are supposed to be catchier than that!) I will work on that.

Also, I think I need a disclaimer in regards to my blogging skills. I am a fairly private person when it comes to my day to day life. And yet, I feel like this is the easiest and cheapest way to communicate with people who care about this trip. I am also highly intimidated by my dear friend Jim Gash, a Pepperdine dean and smartypants as he has detailed his recent trips to Uganda. So if you are simultaneously reading our journeys, I'd stick with his.

Well, here we are. Fourteen bags packed (each couple gave up most of their bags for supplies), 7 passports and 7 visas, a total of 20 vaccinations or more vaccinations between the seven of us, and Amy Batchelor's personal pharmacy. Colin is worried that at some point TSA or Customs will stop me with the load of meds I will be taking. Just your general malaria meds, the necessary extra Cipro should someone get a bug, and my own personal stash of pain medication should my bulging disk decide to herniate itself.

Wait- there's more. A trip to the ER yesterday morning with a headache like no other, high fever and uncontrollable body shakes. I told the Dr between sobbing, that I had to go to Africa TOMORROW. She sweetly assured me that hopefully it was just a general infection of some kind, but she had to do a cat scan, and if the headache didn't go away after the double rounds of morphine, she would need to do a spinal tap. Ugh. We've had enough of those in our church lately as it is. My sweet sister came and took the kids and Colin and Chelsea sat with me until the very happy diagnosis of UTI came through. Thank you God, really, I thank God for that diagnosis and the medication I can take with me. I was hoping for no "itises" of any kind.

I guess there is not much to say. Oh, don't people put pictures with these posts? I haven't had a shower in two days, so I am thinking most people try to look their best before they put a photo in. I will try to take a group picture at the airport.

Our group consists of Colin and myself, Mark and Chelsea Jacobs, Brad and Shannon Voss, and Megan Aldridge (a recently graduated nursing student). We are traveling to Ghana (west Africa) to work with a group of kids who were former child slaves. They live in a large home, temporary at this point. Our goal for this trip is to get to know the kids better, love on them, play games, do arts and crafts, and a mini VBS, with the goal teaching them that they are God's delight, His treasure, that they are unique, loved and redeemed. Lofty plans, however we pretty much know they will be teaching us more than we could ever imagine.

Here is my photo of irony: Emily was randomly chosen with her soccer team to do a care now commercial. A surprise to us turned into a bunch of billboards and mall marquees with this photo. I tried to make the photo go here but it went to the top. But anyway, we have our little cheerleader (not with pom poms!) cheering us from billboards all over north Texas. INJURY won't SIDELINE our family!!!

Hoping to keep you posted if we have internet access.