Asante Sana.

Tomorrow morning, I will be leaving on my Tanzania trip! I am very, very excited about it, and also a little nervous. Mostly about the flights, but still.
I wanted to take a moment to do a quick post about the trip, since I don't know how much access I will have to the internet while I'm gone. I'm really looking forward to sharing lots of pictures and stories upon my return, and I will try to post a little while I'm gone, too!
I haven't met my fundraising goal for the trip, unfortunately, so I had to borrow the money to cover the remaining cost. When I get back, I will get to work on lots of craft projects to sell so I can repay that debt. I'm also hoping to earn enough money from my crafts to "sponsor" the child survival program we will be visiting. We'll see how things out when I get back! Please pray for financial provision for the trip- I know people are a lot less likely to donate after I actually go on the trip, but I still have to pay back the money I borrowed that I was unable to raise funds for during the time before the trip. Hopefully it will all work out, and then I can start saving and fundraising for another trip! : )

Lastly, I want to take the time to thank everyone who has donated to my fundraiser, or helped out in some way (attending the fundraiser night at Tumbleweed, purchasing crafts, bidding on my eBay auctions or buying Haiti ornaments.) I'm really blown away by your generosity and your excitement about my trip. The really amazing thing to me, though, is that many of the donations have come from places I never would have expected. Like a former classmate of my cousin's. Or my best friend from middle school, whom I haven't seen in about ten years. Or one of my patron families from the library. Or even my blog readers who purchased ornaments from the Apparent Project fundraiser before Christmas! It's not to say that the other donations were less valuable- every dime that people have contributed to my trip, to making one of my dreams come true and fulfilling a desire of my heart, has been precious to me. There were some donations that came in, though, that made me tear up a little, because I really had no idea that those people cared. Or that that many people liked me enough to give me money for this trip. It was really amazing and beautiful.


I guess I will sign off for now.... I'll be back in a few weeks to share about my trip (and maybe I'll get a bunch of letters while I'm gone, and I can come back and do a big Mail Call post!) Thank you again for all your prayers!