Sad news.

Hi everyone. I have some sad news to deliver.

The Indonesia trip is basically canceled. At least, for me it is. It has been a pretty dramatic day and a half. It turns out that the folks at Compassion were unable to arrange the east Indonesia (ID) part of the proposed trip, so they had to make it just western Indonesia (IO.) The trip also got moved to June. I found part of this out this morning, but didn't have any concrete answers until this afternoon. So I fretted about it all day at work. Then I found out the rest. They got back to me so late because they were trying to find out if it would be at all possible to bring Tasya to me if I still wanted to go on the trip, but when I told them where she lives, they agreed with me that that really wasn't feasible. She lives so far east, and in such a remote area, that it can't happen. So I am sad. I am sad that now I am not sure when I will ever get to meet Tasya in person. I am also sad because I have been telling everyone "hey! I'm going to Indonesia!" and now I feel weird saying "well, actually, I'm not. Not in 2014, anyway." There was no way we could have seen this coming.

For the record, I still feel that it is my calling to go out into the world and visit these places where Compassion works. I am still planning on taking a trip with Compassion next year. I have to get a few details nailed down- the other trip I'm considering isn't an advocate partner tour, and I really do need the discount (I'm waiting to hear back if that is possible for a non-advocate partner tour, and there is some disagreement among fellow advocates as to whether this is possible. So I'm waiting for official word from Compassion.) I also need to work out a few details regarding the payment, since the final payment for this trip would be sooner than the elusive Indonesia trip was going to be. I am still going on a trip. I'm just not announcing where for a few days (hopefully Monday or Tuesday of next week.) I am still doing my fundraising for this very reason. I will be changing the title of my GoFundMe page as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I would really appreciate your prayers. I cannot accurately convey to you through written word how incredibly stressed I am right now. In addition to all this stuff going on, we had to have one of my family's dogs put to sleep this week. There's some other stuff going on, too. I am just praying for a relaxing weekend with lots of clarity and positive answers to my questions.