3 MORE DAYS!

I officially have three more days until we leave for Singapore! I hve SO many praises right now! One of them is finances for the trip. A month ago, we still needed $4,000+ left as a team to raise. So, we got our butts in gear, had a car wash and raised $600, teamed up with Haley Montgomery and Andy Gridley for a promotional/benefit concert and received a little over $200, worked a marathon and was given $250, and had continual donations still coming into the church office for us. Unfortanately, Akalina was having too many issues with her passport and two weeks ago, her father was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his espohogus; he needs to go through surgery, radiation, and chemo. Please pray for his strength to fight this battle, and for it to be exterminated from his body. With that, our financial need dropped. Chris was just given a $1250 donation from his old church "The Journey" and we are simply floored! We now have a balance of $25.75 as a team, and even that is going to be covered! God is amazing and the ways that He works things out are mind-boggling and simply amazing!

I've had family - Raquelle, Janessa, Tamara, McKinley, and Mom here in Cali over the past 1 1/2 weeks. It hasn't been all bad - it's interesting to see how we have all changed. Raquelle is almost my height, McKinley is almost her height and the three of us all have the same sized feet.....Mickey is about 4 1/2 feet tall! Woa! Raquelle is a typical 14-year-old, Janessa and Tamara have definitly matured more since I last saw them, which is awesome to see the progress they have been making over the past few years. Mom is defintly more mellow of a Mom than when I was a child, but it's nice to have a different relationship with her. It's kind of estranged and apparently "mature" but it works, I guess. What interesting to note is that since the move to NC, my Dad has become more and more affectionate and my Mom has stayed the same. It's difficult for her to tell me that she loves me or that she misses me, or that she's proud of me. Usually, the only way to get her to tell her that she loves you is if you say it first and she responds with "I love you too, honey." SOmetimes, I wish she was more open with her emotions....ironic, huh?

I am over 2/3 way packed...all in 2 hours, while my brother has been sleeping right next to me and my packing. He's over, spending the night - crazy little 8-almost-9year-old! I picked him up from my Mom and Grandma, I got some Singapore work done whie he watched The Incredibles, we ate dinner, went for a walk and picked wild blackberries, came back home, he got ready for bed, I turned on my soothing mix of bedtime songs, and he fell asleep within 10 minutes! Yea! Tomorrow (technically today....), we are making a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, blackberries, and cinnamon rolls. Then, we are making our lunches and heading up to EA in Redwood City and taking McKinley on a tour of the company. McKinley even prepared a surprise for Chris - it's cute!

Please continue to pray for the team as we prep to leave and are in the field from July 31-August 10. Love you guys!