Packing, training and school!

Started packing yesterday. Continued today. So much more to do tomorrow!

It's amazing...in my 20's it took 30 minutes to pack...yes, even for an international trek. I'm starting to understand how my mother can take 2 weeks to pack for a vacation. Well...maybe not quite.

As most of you know, this Saturday, August 9 at 7am, from the Quail Lakes parking lot, Delos and I will be joining 18 other people to work with Compassion International in Kenya Africa in their Child Survival project. We will be repairing fencing, doing some other construction, performing skits, singing worship songs, bringing crafts and other activities to over 300 children, playing with, praying with, hugging and giving medicine to and encouraging many little ones and their families. That's what we're aware of anyway. I am sure the docket will change as we go along.

We are getting all sorts of fun emails with ideas about what to bring the children to help bond with/have fun with them. Today Ana shot out requests for nail polish and a long jump rope. Would have never thought about the nail polish. His timing is perfect. This was the day I was to throw away all my no-longer-used colors! Score.

We have purchased tons of candy and small presents for the children. I can't tell you how excited I am to meet my 2 sponsored children living in Africa. They are older. Actually, Isaya, my first child ever sponsored way back in my L.A. days isn't a child at all. He has actually graduated from the program, went to university and is on his own now. Incredible. We have been out of touch for a couple of years, but I have such a huge spot in my heart for him. I hope nothing bars his arrival on our scheduled date to meet. Omari is the second oldest and should be about to graduate. He should be 18 by now. So I guess he is technically an adult as well. About a year ago, after many years of sponsorship, Omari mentioned that he "loves our Jesus, but is Muslim". I am filled with wonder about our meeting. Our small children are in Lesotho (2) and India (1). Hmm...I see at least another 2 mission trips/homeschooling adventures ahead. :o)

How did this trip come to fruition? Ana is a pediatrician and attends our church. She has been to Kenya with Compassion and been to the Raicine (sp?) child survival project. She came back with a passion to get a Compassion team together to visit and really make an impact. Voila! The timing was right for the Lord, and heeeere we go!

We had to raise over $80,000 and whamo! We did it...in no small measure due to many of you who will be reading these posts. So many contributed in so many ways! We had a well-attended silent auction/spaghetti dinner, hosted a Warren Barfield concert (he...was...AWESOME!), did a pancake breakfast, sold water at the Tapestry of Quail international celebration, sent out personal letters, etc. My friend Kristy Newport's girls even had a bake sale for the kids in Kenya! Jill Welsh is a leader in the children's ministry in our church and has done a great job getting all the kids involved, excited and educated on what is going on over there and why we are going. They did a change collection for several weeks too. I never heard what the total on that was, but I am sure they rocked the house. ****Photos, thank you's and a newsletter will ensue upon our return. ***

Ana suggested some gifts for our older children, so we went with collared t-shirts that say "California" on them (surfer type) and watches for each of the boys. For the Aunt (he has no mom) some dish towels, and various toys for siblings. We are given no sizing info, so we are hoping for the best.

We have such a diverse and great team! So much talent and loyalty...and a couple of folks with quite a sparky sense of humor. (My husband, with his wicked tongue, among them.) The last thing we have to worry about at any given time is being bored. I suppose that would go without saying regardless, but you know what I mean. We have singers, musicians, actors, media folk, and many willing hands and hearts. We each get to bring 2 suitcases; one for our belongings and the other filled with baby clothes, art supplies, medicine and candies for all the children. That means 20 suitcases filled with gifts. What a blessing! The children at our church made puppets and wrote letters to bring along. Today CJ and Bryton made (to me) the sweetest, most heart-wrenching cards for Isaya and Omari. They both put so much care and thought into what went onto their cards. I was blessed by that. See...it's already starting. We go to bless...we come home blessed. Hey...I haven't even left, and I'm blessed! God is good.

Delos and I hit up REI a few weeks back. The very next day, Jen, a young, energetic and very capable member (and a great little actress, but she hates to admit it) of our group gave advice and a little demonstration on packing. She's beyond qualified to do that, with all the mission trips she's been on. I was quite relieved to have her display nearly all the items we had purchased the day before. I would have been quite distressed if we sunk all that dough into the wrong stuff and had to go the laborious "return and exchange" route. No time for all those shenanigans. (Didn't know we had a demo ahead of us). So, again, He took care of us.

Starting to feel the stress of caring for everything in my life and tie up all the loose ends by Friday night. Figuring out which skit to do, as we were given no direction, was quite the project. I spent hours researching things to no avail. There were challenges with coming to a decision, and I was trying not to feel the stress of the situation, but it was getting to me. Then my Monday morning Connections Class prayed over me and my teammate Pat. I expressed my specific prayer request about drama. I have felt relief ever since.

One of the biggest challenges I have had as we prepare, has been caring for all of my homeschool responsibilities and organizing for the year, prior to our departure. What a task! Created a curriculum for CA History next year. Whew! That was the biggest monkey off my back. I was at Borders one night last week from 3:30 til midnight working on it. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Wouldn't you know it...the one day the bug guy sprays (after showing up 2.5 hours late) and I am booted from my own home, Borders is filled with running, cheering, laughing teens and preteens celebrating and meeting with the author of a new vampire novel. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. They hadn't arrived until I had unloaded my suitcase of curricula and other resources from which I worked. I was not about to pack up and leave. I had already broken my back and my suitcase dragging it all in. A former neighbor came by, one who describes herself as Pentecostal. She expressed how excited she was about this night for her daughter. Kids were running around with vampire capes. I prayed for her. I prayed for her daughter. And I prayed for the kids of America. Then I got back to work.

That was CA History. I have also had to prepare for the class I co-teach with Kristy, Story of the World part II: The Medieval Times. That entailed no small chunk of time, but I just love, love, love history so much (wish I felt this way when I was in school) that no matter how much work there is, it is FUN! I can't wait to get to the African Kingdoms chapter to share the experiences and show and tell items I will be able to bring back from Africa. So that's it for the 2 co-op classes I teach to about 15 students each. I have also had to deal with the boys' curriculum for home...you know, math, language arts, science, etc. And clean out the homeschool room, reorganizing, changing the theme, etc. And keep up with violin, piano, karate and dance. Anytime I ask Delos if we can "do (fill in with any number of things I get excited about in a given week)" he replies "Sure. I believe you still have your 3:10am-4:05am timeslot still available." Then silly me, running late for the boys' first triathlon a few weeks back, got a speeding ticket. So what else is eating up my time??? Yes, lovely traffic school! Oh, how I love it. I have done comedy, free pizza and cost-u-less in the past. So I am giving online traffic school a try now. At least it won't steal a precious day from me at this point. I suppose slowing down is an option to avoid much of this duress. Nah.

Been training for a triathlon. My first. Ran with my coach and about 7 or 8 other athletes for 25 minutes tonight. I am TRASHED. I can't move my legs. I did poorly, but am going to try to stick this out. I thought tonight's run would have been a tad easier as I have been training on my own for almost 3 weeks now. Has been much harder than I thought, and I did think it would be hard. Running has never been my thing. I used to be a swimmer, and I love cycling, so I thought this would be a good rounded way of getting back into shape. Feels good to be doing something though, despite the pain. And I am feeling the changes of (hopefully) getting my old self back again. That's a good thing. Love these immobile aching legs!

Just so you know...I am not complaining about all these preparations and I hope it doesn't sound like I am. I love it! I love to be busy and filled with purpose. I can sleep later...on the plane. Oh wait! No I can't....I have to listen to all my Andrew Pudewa cd's on the plane for our "Institute for Excellence in Writing" lessons again!!! Hee hee.

Okie Dokie. Now to get the boys' calendar ready for my MIL. She will be watching the boys for 2 weeks. I don't think she is ever as exhausted as when she follows our homeschool routine! She loves it though, and does a great job with the boys.

Nothing like starting my first blog off with a dilly whopper like this one. If you made it this far, thank you, and congratulations! I will try to be more succinct going forward. But that is not a promise. My fingers are crossed. ;o)