6 more sleeps

Hey Friends...

Well our saturday night fundraiser was a grand success...the house was full...I mean it was a full house...thank you, thank you, thank you to every one of you who have helped to make this project a reality.

I must confess as cohost I started the night with a mild to moderate case of butterflies and was feeling slightly shy...that was until I reached the microphone and realised there was an audience waiting to be entertained....I quickly got over the butterflies...despite of my high fives performance as Andrea's cohost there's no way my cheesy jokes and sorta sweetness can compete with the amazingly talented folk who came out to sing, play instruments, swing and climb through the air, boombox, act and adlib...it was quite a night...there was some fantastic steel guitar being played...all sorts of good things happened in the Catalyst last saturday...Etta even sang us a little "how much is that puppy in the window" and the word on the street this morning (in the hospital lunch room) was that little Etta (self proclaimed: ballerina/hockeyplayer/skateboarder) of the night was shaking it up and twirling on the stage during intermission...if anyone stole the show it was this cutiepatootie...

so we are 6 sleeps away from begining our journey...the Red Arrow seats have been reserved and Andrea and I can anticipate quality snacks on the first leg of our Nicaraguan adventure...(at least that's what a little bird told me)...it's hard to believe that we are actually going to be leaving E-town...this trip all feels more surreal than just around the corner...

I am finishing up my immunization program (thank goodness for my patient boyfriend who has to put up with his disorganized girlfriend) and tonight as I sit here typing my left arm is throbbing from my polio vaccination...boo hoo.

I just talked with our friend Ed who told me he has a tonne (almost literally) of shoes for us to take down to the kids...and my friends at work...in the ICU...have been so generous in gathering up some money and kids socks and underwear....it's so very cool how much we can accomplish when we come together...that's the power of, that's the glory of: SYNERGY...it's magic!...A few people have dropped off art supplies and I can't wait to meet the kids and sit down and see what creative expressions appear on the paper and such from their imaginations...I think there will be lots of laughter as we paint, draw, glue, cut, rip, and artsn'craft it up....

I have been starting to anticipate what it will be like to get off the plane in Managua...it's hard to wrap my around around leaving on Saturday from my cozy home sweet home and my fairly safe and easy living in Canada and arriving Sunday in a new land where I barely speak the language (unless I miraculously wakeup fluent in Spanish along the way)...and I hear Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in our part of the world...second next to Haiti...(I think)...then again I have never been a fact quoter...so be sure to double check and cross reference anything sort of factual or quasi-factual statement I might make...

I am prepared to be overwhelmed...to have my heart stretched and maybe even broken...it will certainly be a perspective building trip...and a humbling experience in multiple ways...I look forward to growing into my experience of Nicaragua...I am curious what it may stir up and awaken within me...

More than anything...I can't wait to meet the kids...to see their faces, hear their voices, to hug them and laugh with them...I so look forward to making so many new little friends...I can't imagine what that initial moment will be like...of arriving at the orphanage and then walking through the gate and seeing these children that I have been dreaming of and praying for and talking about over the past couple of months...my heart already loves them...it's going to be hard not to want to bring them home with me...good thing I only have a one bedroom apartment...

Lindsay