All Packed Up!

Well, tomorrow is the BIG DAY! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! My tummy has been in knots for the past few days! I’ve been busy unpacking from our Christmas travels, doing laundry, and then yesterday I started packing up for the trip! So, I wanted to share with you what the final decision was on the goodie bags for the celebration at Samuel’s village….after I posted about it a bunch of people ended up donating some really great things for the bags! Here is the rundown:

Toy cars for the boys: donated by The Gardner Family
Coloring books and crayons for the girls: donated by The Seay Family
Beanie babies for all: donated by The DeBruin Family
Granola bars for all: donated by The Jorgensen Family
Balloons for all: donated by Janel’s parents
Mini beach balls for all: donated by Jake’s parents
Peanut butter cracker sandwiches for all
Suckers and starbursts for all

Thanks to everyone who donated!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to hand the bags out! I did decide to wait to put the goodie bags together until we get to Ghana. That way in case I am picked to have my luggage checked I won’t have to take everything out of each bag!

We also had some other AWESOME donations for Kofi and the CompAfriCare Foundation (http://www.compafricare.org/). Our case worker’s brother donated 60 cans of infant formula! WOW! With all the other things we are taking, we can only bring about 30 of the cans, but the rest will be shipped via CompAfriCare’s U.S. headquarters in Ohio.

And, Jake’s 5th grade boys team put together a donation box at the gym and gathered needed items for the children being cared for by CompAfriCare. They had an AWESOME turnout! Here is a picture of some of the collection:

Hmmmm….I might need to take that Hawkeye shirt out of there! Just joking! :) The 5th grade boys team collected a TON of shoes, first aid supplies, formula, diapers, wipes, pedialyte, etc. Good job boys! We will be able to take a handful of these items in our luggage, and the rest will be shipped.

And, last but not least, here is what we are bringing for Samuel and his mother:

For Samuel some clothes, a spiderman racer car, and his welcome book. And for his mom, some rice, canned beans and potatoes, a can opener, and her letter. I checked with Yaw to make sure these items were appropriate for Samuel’s mother, and he gave me the go ahead.
Let’s see, what else?

Dramamine (check!)
Bug spray (check!)
Ipod with newly downloaded songs (check!)
Lots of books for the plane ride (check!)
Deck of cards (check check!)
Pretzels and club crackers (check!)
Detoxed from caffeine (check!)
Emotional readiness to leave sweet red-heads for 8 days (NO!) :( Oh man, that keeps sneaking in there. Well, the time has come whether I am ready or not. I know they will have fun with Grandma but I am going to miss them so much! (sob, sob)

You’ll get one more post out of me tomorrow with our itinerary and some prayer points for each day. And then I will be taking a break from posting while we are on the trip since I am not sure how the internet connection will be. I’ll be journaling each day and can’t wait to post the entries (and LOTS of PICTURES) when we get back home!

Adios Amigos!

P.S. If you have time today you HAVE to check out this post on a blog that I read...her posts are always good, especially this one from today: http://joiningthejourney.blogspot.com/2009/12/did-you-know.html