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...