We are HOME!

We got home late last night after a 3 hour delay in JFK! It is good to be home but the last 10 days were full of blessings so I was also sad to leave!! There are so many new kids in the therapy program, all needing more equipment and more therapy but the gym looks AMAZING!

Lindsey did such an awesome job with the mural and I am so lucky that Deanna was there to help with all the equipment and training. Here are just some of the MANY pictures. More stories and pictures to come later! Here is a BEFORE and AFTER picture:

This is me with Martin. He was one of the first kids I met on summer staff in 2006. He is doing great!

This is sweet Jyaibel. Deanna rebuilt this chair to fit him and he obviously liked it (he slept the whole time!)

This is sweet Christopher using a walker for the first time. He did great!

This is a picture of part of the groups of parents and kids who have special needs. The secodn picture is me with Jack after the dedication on Friday. It is so exciting for the project to be completed (or at least the first stage!). There are so many kids who need therapy and who can't otherwise get it because this is the only clinic that provides free therapy. There was a father who drove from 3 1/2 hours away because he heard that there were physical therapists giving out walkers. It was such a humbling experience that he came for something that is so accessible to us.

There were close to 20 kids who came in while we were there. About 16 of them need ongoing therapy. More to come later! Thanks again to everyone for your support, the trip was amazing and such a success!!!

On our way!

Well, it is 11:30 and I leave my house in 4 hours for the airport after we pick up Lindsey!! I am so excited and filled with anticipation about all that is going on! Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed for us and given so much support!! It is very appreciated. Photos and stories to come as we return (10 days from now!).

Packing...

...So tonight Deanna and Lindsey came over to help pack. 5 huge duffle bags and 1 large suitcase are packed and ready to go!-not to mention we each a have a roller suitcase and a large (probably too big!) "personal item" each. I am so thankful everything fit in our bags even though we will definitely be paying overweight fees.

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed, I anticipate so much seeing the gym finished and it will be so soon! The families and the kids who will be receiving services there have no idea what is coming!-I can't wait to see their faces.

Prayer requests include: safe travel (including our bags making it with us!), allowing us to meet with all/majority of the kids in the program (sometimes transportation is a problem!) so that we can get them fitted for other equipment they might need and get a therapy program ready for them, overall blessing on our communication with the dominican people, safety and health for all of us and for the completion of the mural project.

I can't wait to post before/after pictures. I'll update this when I get back towards the end of the month

We leave on the 5:40 AM flight on 10/15th and come home on 10/24th.

Watch out Cielo, here we come!

Almost here!

Sorry it has been awhile since my last post. Things have been coming along great and I have really exciting news!! One of my favorite physical therapists, Deanna, will be coming on the trip. This is a HUGE blessing because Deanna is so talented at putting things together and she is super handy with tools. She will be a great help and I am so lucky to be going with her and sharing this experience with her.

I am starting to pack tonight..our little team of 3 leave one week from Thursday on the 5 am flight! Pray for smooth travels because we only have a 50 minute layover in Atlanta and there is only 1 flight/day to Santo Domingo.

Lots of other donations have come in and I just spoke with a coordinator for ME who was asking about final touches for some of the equipment being built (stairs, balance beam, etc). I can't believe years of planning is coming down to just a little more then 1 week away.

Last little bit of info...I tracked down a PT from the DR who I met 4 years ago when I was working with one of the children. He is a great PT who was so eager to learn what we did here for PT. I left a message where he works now and I am excited to hopefully get to bring him to our clinic to maybe help out a little bit. I think it will be great to have a PT contact in the DR! He is the one in the scrubs in this picture.

If you would like to make last minute donations, please do so through the paypal tab because I can access that much faster than waiting for the target toys to get here.

Thank you everyone for your support and I will update when we return!!!