shots and fund raising...

garage sale...
we needed to raise some money. my friend susan, who is an artist, had an art show in her hometown of jacksonville. she picked 4 paintings to sell representing each of us going. the money she made from those pieces was lovingly given to us. her love for me is unwavering. i am so blessed by my good friends. we had planned car washes but due to the recent flooding here in nashville (and conservation of water due to compromised water plants) and construction at our local chick fil a, they were cancelled! ugh. so now what? a garage sale, that's what. we had sweet friends and family who donated items and baked goods. we had a great turn out and made a good bit for half a day! one customer said her neighbor had a new grandson who came from uganda. there are so many stories we have heard about this place that we are so unfamiliar with but yet we feel so close to. even as emily and i watched "law and order svu" a character mentioned a gift she had received from ugandans. i never have really noticed uganda... until now.


as the torrential rains continued that friday night after our post office visit, we couldn't get the tables from our neighbors that we had planned on using so we had to wait until the rain let up. in the mean time a friend of a friend wanted to donate some things. we were told they had video games, guitar hero, rock band and a side chair. my car was still full of emily's "stuff". we were told this chair should fit into a normal sized car backseat. emily and i get in caitlin's car and set out to find where these nice people lived. we get stuck in traffic as there was a wreck on franklin road. we make our way to concord road and finally to the house. they had to leave so they left everything on their covered front porch. we run to the porch and get the small box of stuff then we both look at the chair and think "is that going to fit?" caitlin's car is a volvo s40...this chair, at the time, looked way too big. we get a grip on it and head to the car. pouring rain! we try every way possible but it simply will not fit. we call mason to meet us there with my car and asked him to take some of emily's stuff in to the house to make room for this chair! emily looks down as i am talking to mason and says, "mama, he can't bring your car. your keys are right here!" oh my gosh. seriously? SO...we take the chair back up to the covered porch (remember...pouring rain!) then drive back to our house. we get julianne and her friend, megan, to go with us. the four of us go get the chair and we struggle immensely getting that thing in the car. by this time we wanted to ask $200 for that chair but it sold for $25 the next day. hey, $25 is $25! after the chair episode i needed caffeine. i knew it was going to be a looong night. we went to the store to get some things we needed to bake what we wanted to bake. emily and megan made cookies and brownies while i tried to oragnize the garage. mason and julianne helped but i was just running out of gas. finally, around 12:30 i called it a (very long) day and laid on the couch for a minute. next thing i knew mason was tapping my shoulder...it was 5:30 am. he told me to get up, people were already circling the cul de sac. well, it wasn't supposed to start until 8 so i wasn't going to open the garage door until around 7:45. i can't explain how we got it done. the garage was not organized but emily and abigail got up and remarkably, we all got things done. neighbors continued to bring things to sale all morning long. it was a good day! thank you to theresa, darrilyn, angie, julia, julie, shawna, dawn, susan, jane, pam, vicki, the ross family, the hooper family, the giddens family, hannah and kate! your contributions were more than expected and very much appreciated!

doctor's office...
with the girls being up to date on all of their vaccines, they only needed to get the yellow fever shot and the oral polio vaccine. i had to, however, get several: hep a and b, tetanus and meningitis, as well as the yellow fever. caitlin, emily and i went to the doctor to discuss the shots and to let me get the ones i needed. while there i got a prescription for an antibiotic (cipro) to use if needed, malarone (the malaria medicine) to take before, during and after trip as well as a prescription for something to help me relax on the flight...if needed :) as before stated, i do not like to fly much anymore. i have now charged the girls with not letting me look like an idiot if i choose to take this medicine. emily said she would video if anything gets entertaining. great! for real, i am a little fearful but i think about Joshua 1:9 "...Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." while at the dr.s office, she talked to caitlin, emily and i about lots of things including where we will be sleeping, the use of mosquito netting, side effects of shots and medicines, etc. during our conversation she heard caitlin wheezing and then we discussed asthma. her asthma has been flaring up lately. it is usually aggravated by allergens, dust, stress, exercise and moldy conditions. i think all of this rain we have had has caused some of the problem as well. caitlin is my child who is much like my mother. she is a little anxious in strange surroundings and if something bad could happen, in her mind she is convinced it surely will to her. the dr. asked how she felt about going all that way and not feeling 100%. she responded that it made her a little uncertain because when you can't breathe...the road to even vanderbilt hospital is long. the result of this conversation was this, verbatim, "i would feel better if you waited until your asthma was better under control before going on a trip like this. it's ok. there will be more trips." turns out she couldn't have even gotten the yellow fever vaccination with acute asthma. so with that being said, our trip with 4 of us going is now to 3 of us going. i think caitlin was a little relieved but at the same time a little sad because we were getting excited about the children who are not known to us now but who will very soon be known and named. as jen said, "you will put their little faces in your hands and you will know them."
"May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us--yes, establish the work of our hands." Psalm 90:17


my passport arrived less than one week after the franklin p.o. experience. that's hard to believe. wondering how mine beat everyone else's. hoping the birmingham p.o. lady actually sent them in!! as i type this i already miss what caitlin would have brought to this trip and it makes me sad. she would have kept us laughing, quizically shaking our heads and on our toes. her questions and thoughts seem so simple but they are at the same time very thought provoking and complex. i will miss her being with us. i really was looking forward to being with all three of my older girls and experiencing this once in a lifetime journey with them. but yes, dr., there will be other trips...

hurdles...

what i didn't know...
after deciding, yes, we are going on this trip, the wheels were set in motion. wow. we had a lot of hurdles to jump over to even catch up a tiny bit with the other team members. ok, so we need passports (and quickly!) and shots. we can't get our visas without the passport and the yellow fever shot and we have to get the other shots a certain time before travel. ok no problem. so i began researching what we needed. expediting our passports will be $180 each. also, i was told if i got everything i needed as far as shots it would be around $800. what? are you serious? i had no idea about all of the details that went in to getting ready for the trip...and no idea what the cost would be...again, then multiply it times 4! so the girls would be around $400 with shots and prescriptions. this will be out of pocket. God, how are we going to do all of this? why have You put this trip so heavy on my heart? why are we going? i can't wait until we find out! "I am only one; but still I am one. I may not be able to do everything, but still I can do something." - Helen Keller

birth certificates...
caitlin and i went downtown nashville to get our four birth certificates. that's a story of it's own. there was a sign on the door saying something about no weapons past this point. that began to freak her out, not to mention the bus station across the street where a fight had broken out as we were putting coins in the parking meter. while waiting on our certificates you can only imagine our conversation. oh and did i mention the FBI agent who was in there waiting as well who proceeded to talk on his cell about some gang related incident? she is a little wary (or maybe a lot wary) of lots of things. we finally got our bc's then we went to the sweet sleep office to talk to jennifer and stuart and to give them some of the money for the trip. we were lucky to have some time to look at photos of where we were going and to have some one on one with jennifer. she is so knowledgeable about her cause. she speaks as if it is part of who she is...which it is. she goes in to "sweet sleep" mode and her words of advocacy spill from her mouth so passionately.


passports, 1!
it was may 13th. i went to birmingham to help emily load her car (and mine) after her freshman year at samford university. caitlin rode with me because we needed to send their passport application off that day and she was going to spend the weekend with a friend in birmingham then drive emily's car home on sunday! after an early morning wake up, caitlin, abigail and i went to the fed ex store to get our photos taken (emily had already gotten hers taken at walgreens in birmingham). abigail then went to school and caitlin and i headed south. i planned to take abigail the next day to get our passports processed together. we spent the very hot afternoon going up and down dorm stairs carrying emily's things to the car. after we were finally done, i put the key in the ignition only to have nothing happen. zilcho, notta. tell me this isn't happening. oh, but it was. so emily walked to public safety on campus and after about 15 minutes they showed up to jump my car. ok, so they did but after about 30 seconds of running, it started bouncing like a clown car and making an awfully weird noise. at this point, caitlin was opening the car door ready to jump because she thought it was going to blow up. as the man was putting his jumper cables and such back in his truck he turned to to me and said "that doesn't sound good." really? the car quit so he then took my battery out to reset the battery. by this time, it was getting late. we had to be at the post office by 3. that was when they stopped accepting passport applications and plus we had to get back to nashville for julianne's chorus concert which started at 6:30. i am exhausted by this point. the public safety man eventually put my battery back in and i tried to start the car again. it started and sounded fine. he told us to not turn the car off for thirty minutes. so we drive to the closest p.o. that accepted passport applications (not all of them do, you know). it was about 2:15. we got there and i told the girls to go in and start filling out applications because i couldn't turn the car off. emily reached for her photo envelope from walgreens only to realize she had grabbed the WRONG ONE while we were packing up! at this point, what else could go wrong? we had to go back to samford and let emily look through the things in her car to find the CORRECT walgreens envelope. did that and got back to the p.o. at about 2:50! the lady was not too happy that she had to process two passport apps that also needed to be expedited. that takes longer. anyway, got it done, got a quick late lunch, dropped caitlin at her friend's house, got on the road back home and made it to julianne's concert only 20 minutes late!

passports, 2!
the next day, abigail got out of school at 2. we were headed to the franklin p.o. and were about 5 minutes down the road. she forgot to bring her license for identification. what? what are we doing going to africa? we are going to be like the beverly hillbillies! so i turn around to head back home and i was probably mumbling things under my breath and abigail knew i was not happy. but i was so over all of this at that moment. seems the more obstacles the more determined i am to just get it done. so by the time we get back to the p.o. it was 2:45. remember what time they stop accepting apps? so we are there and they shut the line down right as we get there with two people hurrying in right behind us. we had two girls behind us who we got to know well because we WERE IN LINE FOR 2 HOURS! no kidding. there were about 6 people in front of us...5 of which needed expedited passports. remember birmingham and why the lady wasn't really happy with us? turns out the family in front of us also went to brentwood baptist and he, linc, is the youth minister. we all shared our travel plans and rights to our first born children as we bonded in that line. an hour and a half in, the girl that was last in line realized she didn't have her app photos. she had time to run to walgreens, get them taken and get back. she is going to haiti on a medical mission. the girl in front of her is going to chile. linc's daughter is going to canada on a mission trip. as we waited, i couldn't help but think of all i had to do that afternoon. my youngest, caroline, was supposed to have a softball game that night and i had to get home to pick her up and get her there on time. however, as we stood in line the lights went out because we were having a terrific storm pass through...huge hail and thunder and lightning. an employee behind the counter (attempting humor) mentioned that the computers had shut down and they could not continue with processing. not funny. this one man was the only one i guess that was qualified to do this job! there were 4 more employees just standing there as we waited and waited and waited. by the time it was our turn the man told me caroline's game would not happen. (as we stood in line and as we all - the passport man, too, at this point- bonded for life, i was getting texts saying yes, it will go on). he had heard us talking in line as i had a million phone calls from home wondering where i was, were we ok, and who was taking caroline to the game, etc. sure enough i finally got a call (during our time with the man) saying the game was cancelled. good thing because i had to get everything ready for the garage/bake sale that was set to happen in t minus 14 hours and i literally had done nothing at this point.

so much to do...

so when you decide to go on a trip like this, you don't just go. there are so many things that you do not think about. things that need to get done in a timely manner... passports, visas, shots, medicines, fund raising, choosing prayer partners. multiply that by 4. i felt very overwhelmed, especially since two of the girls were out of town at school. time was short and we were pressed but i also thought, if we are meant to go, everything will fall into place. with that being said, it is very uncomfortable for me to ask people for help financially. therefore, i was going to have to raise my portion of the trip. after i mentioned this trip to the girls all three were on board. all 5 wanted to go! i felt that julianne and caroline were just too young to go that far right now... and especially because i wasn't completely sure of what we were getting ourselves into, i just felt they could go next time. so with caitlin, emily and abigail committed to go, knowing we couldn't swing the price of the trip for all 4 of us, i told them if they could help raise the money we would go. from that point on they were fired up. we emailed and texted back and forth and after much editing they finally had their letters written. after the letters were typed and sent to my husband's office, he printed them, got labels, envelopes and brought them home. the next day i went to birmingham to meet emily. caitlin drove up from tuscaloosa and we proceeded to categorize to whom they would send their letters...dividing up between friends and family, leaving abigail some prospects. so there we were in the lobby of the mountain brook hampton inn (along with people from a class reunion and a wedding party), taking up three tables, busy, busy. they were signing their letters, i was stamping the envelopes with our return address and caitlin's boyfriend luke, (on his birthday) was putting labels on the return envelopes. he was also giving us "helpful hints" on how to make "famous" people respond to our letter. he's a nut. knowing emily was needing to get ready for a sorority party and caitlin and luke had planned to cook out with friends for his birthday, we were rushing to get finished. after finally completing this huge task, i went to the post office to get stamps, came back to the room and logged in each family to whom each girl was sending letters. i literally was praying out loud as i drove down the hill to the post office and as i put the letters in the mail box. "Lord, please bless this trip and all of our preparations."

in the beginning...

the story goes that i got involved with sweet sleep because of the founder, jen gash. jennifer babysat my kids when they were little. her story and how she went about starting sweet sleep is one worth reading. i would volunteer here and there....no biggie. but the more i got involved the more i wanted to help do more significant things. i would ask jennifer about different trips they were going on and she knew that eventually i would go on a trip with them. yeah, yeah. i knew i wanted to as well but there was never a good time. also, i am not a fan of flights longer than two hours! fly me to chicago...perfect, to new york city...i am good...but thinking about crossing the atlantic and two continents with two overnight flights...forget it. i approached jen about going to haiti to help with work after the earthquake. yes, sweet sleep is involved in haiti but she wasn't really thrilled about my asking about haiti. she didn't show much enthusiasm but her words to me were "how about uganda? i am just throwing it out there!" to which i responded "heck no! i am not going to africa. don't even ask again. i will not go to africa." june 11-21...i am going to africa. what? how did this happen? let me just say this is not normal for me. i am much of a germ freak, i am weird about foods, i am a creature of habit (but i do like adventure) so after talking with jen a bit more i was more at ease and felt relatively calm about the possibility. “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God is this: To visit the orphans and the widows in their distress” James 1:27 i was actually getting excited! not only did i want to go but i wanted to involve my girls. i have 5 daughters and i thought why not take some with me? emily, my 2nd, has been wanting to do an international mission trip for several years now. my husband, mason, has wanted us to go on a mission as a family but we could just never find the right trip or time. i thought well if i am going to africa i might as well take a few girls because i most likely will never go back (never say never). i realize that the timing is not perfect but it's perfect timing. times are tough. finances are tight for most all of us. what i mean by this is that i feel very pulled at this specific time to go. this specific time is the right time to sow the seeds of compassion in my oldest girls. sometimes we are so caught up in what we have going or what we have to do and feel we don't have time to do anything for anyone else because we are barely keeping our heads above water. that being said, for some reason this is the time. now. even though i have many, many things going on in my life that you would think should keep me here. some (but very few) people are telling me i am crazy to do this or that i am not thinking this through enough or that i am being irresponsible and expecting too much, etc. i can see their point but honestly, what God has put on my heart cannot be denied even though i am a little uneasy about it. when i was initially talking about this, my brother, greg, told me "this is one of those things you just do. you decide you are going and you get on the plane and you go. you don't think about it." he was telling me about when he decided to go to the ukraine. he wasn't really sure about it but he went and said he has never regretted it. i also spoke to my sweet friend,susan, who is my go to girl about things like this...big things in my life. i told her about my conversation with jen and asked her what she thought. she said let me think about this and pray about this and i will get back to you. the next day we talked and she said simply, "kelli, it just seems right. i think you should go." also, another friend, teresa, didn't know exactly what i was talking about on facebook when i explained i needed direction on whether or not to go on a mission trip. she said "if it's with sweet sleep...go!" i had not even mentioned sweet sleep yet but she knew of it through my previous volunteering. i thought of proverbs 27:9 "perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel."

"God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through." -Crazy Love