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.