Santa Barabara

hello!

After my third day of training, I'm definitely getting excited for Bosnia. I've spent a bunch of time with my team, and I'm excited that I will be spending the next six weeks with them. It's a great group of people.

I learned about the history of the Bosnian War. It's devastating to hear how many people have lost their lives and it's such a fresh wound for the people still. It'll be very intriguing and interesting to hear the stories of the people.

I've also been hanging out by the beach and Santa Barbara. It's such a beautiful city!

I am super excited to announce that I am fully funded! =]
However, the rest of my team is not, and I would love to see them funded!

I'm leaving in two days. Getting excited! I just want to be in BOSNIA alreadyy

detour

We originally planned to take the greyhound bus to get to Santa Barbara. This was definitely an option we didn't want to take, but it seemed to like the easiest option.
Little did we know, greyhounds are NOT convenient. We left the house at 5am for our 6:45 departure. After standing in line for an hour and a half with smelly people offering us weed, we were about to get on the bus.
There's five of us in our group. Four of us got in, but there wasn't any room for the fifth person. We weren't about to leave ANYONE behind and so we would have had to take the next one which would leave at 9am. With a transfer in LA [again, our seat isn't guaranteed so we wouldn't even be sure if we could get on the first available one] we would probably get to Santa Barbara around 9-ish. Funny enough, it would take us long to get from Vegas to SB then LAX to Germany.
So pretty much, after thinking everything through, we decided to take Ben's car to drive to Santa Barbara.
Right now, I'm at the kitchen table, enjoying a wonderful bowl of honey nut cheerios waiting for the boys to fit all the luggage in Ben's trunk.
I've been up for four hours and we have not progressed in our journey. In all honesty, if we were supposed to get on the bus, we would have. It just wasn't meant to be.

Five more days!

I'm leaving this week. 

I don't really know how to feel yet. I don't feel ready; I'm going to miss Vegas a whole lot. It's strange because I've left home for months at a time, but I've never felt that I would miss Vegas this much. 

I think it's because I'm scared of change. I know I'm going to come back a changed person. Six weeks in a foreign country with people you don't really know changes you. Part of my fear of change is that Vegas is going to change without me. So much can happen in six weeks. 

Either way, I know that going to Bosnia is going to be an AMAZING experience. I'm excited to meet new people and to see God working in Bosnia. I'm excited to experience something new. 

The past four months since I've been accepted to be part of this project has been the most challenging, emotionally draining months that I have ever experienced. But I have been blessed in so many ways. I've had many answered prayers and amazing friends to help me through it all. 

I have to accept that whether or not I feel ready, it's not up to me. I'm going to go into the next six and a half weeks with an open mind and heart. 

Hopefully I'll get a chance to update my blog before I leave for Santa Barbara on Friday. I'll probably post an itinerary of what and where I will be. 

As of now, I am 71% funded

Three weeks left

I finally submitted my first set of checks. 

I hit $2,000 =] 

Everyone on our team hit $2000 which is a HUGE blessing. 

I'm super happy. 

Now we have to each raise an additional $2,000 within the next three weeks. 

We did the Baja Fresh fundraiser today. It was alright. Every dollar counts, and that's how i'm going to look at it. 

It was a great opportunity to let people that go to my church know what we're doing. 

As of now, I am 53% funded