It's here!

We just got home late Monday night from a week's vacation (yes, an actual vacation!) and a trip to Birmingham to visit with Nathan and Karen and to go to Karen's graduation from UAB optometry school. We now have our second doctor in the family (Judy Mitchell was our first when she got her Dr. of therapy from Belmont a couple of years ago). Karen and Nate are now off to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she will complete her residency at the V.A. Hospital. She begins July 1 for a year long program. I guess we will have to tough it out and go visit them while they are there!

This week almost seemed like Christmas here. I have been patiently waiting for all of the stuff to get here from the silk screen shop for the trip. Monday the main team t-shirts came in, 4 boxes in all. Of course I opened every one of them! The shirts look great! Tuesday a second set of shirts arrived. Wednesday the rain jackets AND water bottles came in!!! Did anyone hear me say, "Oh yeah!"? Everything looks really good, especially the water bottles. I was nervous since we had to go with another style but I am quite happy with them. Our living room is filled with all of this stuff and is in the process of being sorted into sizes so that we can begin putting together every one's orders. The last piece of the puzzle, the Torch journal, is almost done and should be going to print later today or Friday. Everything should be ready to go and in the mail no later than Tuesday of next week!

Payments and checks have been flooding my mailbox this week as well. REMEMBER, THIS WEEKEND IS THE DEADLINE IF YOU ARE MAILING A CHECK TO ME! Starting Tuesday (Monday is a Federal holiday) any outstanding payments or donations has to be in the form of cash. I will not have time to deposit checks and have them clear in time to withdraw the money for the trips.

The container is off and away! Gayle Davidson and crew from Melbourne loaded the 40' container and it was trucked to Port Everglades Tuesday and was loaded on a boat headed for Honduras. The projected arrival date for the container is June 2nd. Our team ended up with an amazing 450 boxes of supplies! Thank you so much for all of your hard work and effort to collect, sort, box, and label supplies. A very special thanks to those who traveled to Melbourne to delver the supplies. Steve Schneider, from Mobile, Alabama, receives the Road Warrior Award for his efforts! According to Gayle Davidson, Steve is worth of double honor for what he went through to get his supplies to her. Let's just say he went the extra mile and we will let him tell his story! Years from now it will reach legendary status.

The Costa Rica team is now exactly 2 weeks away from departure today! Last minute arrangements and plans are being worked on and should be completed this week. There is still a lot to do and I only have 24 hours in a day to work on them. I am going to bed late and getting up early (I guess I am conditioning myself for the trip sleep schedule too!) to get it all done. Lots of emails will be sent out in the next few days but hopefully most are reading this blog. The Honduras team is now less than a month away from leaving. Even though the Honduras team has a bit more time to get ready, it will be here before you know it. but for me everything has to be done in the next 10 days. And I have to tell you, I am excited!

In the next few days I will be posting all kinds of information from items to pack to take with you to travel suggestions to make the trip go a little bit smoother. A lot of you will need to do some things that will require a bit of time and work, but it will all make your trip better. So make sure to check the blog daily as updates are posted. Hasta luego!

TR