July 16th: The Start of our Journey

Well it started as a calling. A calling that April felt when we visited the orphanage last year that caused her to pursue the founding of The Hope Shines Foundation.

Then it became a cause. When she picked me as among the first to invite along on the adventure. I immediately knew I had to do it, had to help, although it took me awhile to work out the details and be able to give my final confirmation. I was so very grateful to be able to enlist the help of one of my closest and longest friends, Kim. Kim & I had talked a few times about wanting to do some sort of charity trip together and this was just perfect since Kim is a teacher. We each raised money for our sponsorship on the trip and were overwhelmed with the amazing support we received in response.

And now it's here. After all the preparation, all the nervousness, this morning I woke up just plain excited! I'm going back to Rwanda with a wonderful group of people to do something completely out of my comfort zone to make a difference in the lives of little girls all the way around the world. Wow.

Traffic got me to the airport just in time but we made it and we're on our way on the first leg of the trip: Brussels here we come! When we got on board, Kim had a surprise for me: a coworker of hers had organized "care cards" for our trip. What this means is that her and other people she organized to help, including her Mom & my Dad, had prepared cards and little surprises for us to open each day. How sweet! They have been very touching and inspirational so far.

I do not know how to begin to thank everyone for all the support that's gotten me this far. But I thought it might help if I blogged about it to let you know how it's going because it's not just my story, it's ours: I would not be here if it weren't for all the kind words, encouragement and, yes, donations. (Speaking of which, financially I'm hoping I might be able to meet my goal for the trip because before I left, I was getting close and several people told me that their checks were still on their way!)