4 Days to Go!!

Oh boy - so 4 days to go until our departure day and yesterday / today I was sick as a dog. I went home from work early yesterday as I was pretty much near tears as I felt so horrible. That scratch-y feeling in my throat turned into a full-blown sore throat and it pretty much took all the energy I could muster not to fall down. I came home and pretty much slept for most the day, and also started some pretty hard-core dosages of Benelyn and Cold FX. I was up most of last night as my throat and cough kept waking me up, and had a pretty high fever, so made the decision to call in sick to work today as well. Not good as I'm out of sick days so won't get paid for a day and a half, but there was no way I was going to make it through the day at work.

I'm actually feeling a lot better this evening though, I think my medication combo is doing the trick. I don't have the fever, chills, or that achy feeling anymore, and my throat feels about 50% better than it did last night and this morning. I'm also getting my voice back which is great as I've sounded like a man whose smoked his whole life for the past 2 and 1/2 days. I hate, hate, hate feeling sick (who wouldn't?) but I do always seem to bounce back really quickly - so hopefully that trend continues and I'm good to go for Sunday (I almost cried this morning as I was so worried that I'd be travelling feeling like I did)! I've also had a bunch of people praying for me that I would feel better soon, and I know that this is probably the greatest reason why I feel so much better tonight! (so thank-you everyone)!

I also wanted to thank everyone for being so supportive of this trip - it's a really cool feeling to know that all my friends and family are so excited for me, and excited for everyone going on this trip. I know I've talked about it a lot over the last several months, and will probably talk about it a lot after we get back, but everyone seems to be really genuinely interested in it and doesn't seem tired about hearing about it yet!

I was talking to one of my best friends tonight, and she was asking if I was still really excited or if the nervousness was kicking in yet. It's funny, 'cause although I'm not really nervous about anything yet (except for the travelling while feeling sick part of course), this week has been a different kind of excitement. Now that the trip is so close, it's kind of like the more materialistic excitement of the trip (the travelling, exploring new places) has been replaced by an excitement or focus on what I really want to accomplish while I'm there. I'm really hoping that I connect with a lot of the children at the orphanages we'll be visiting. I know (through my research and through talking with Ryan at GIVE) that a lot of these kids just need attention and love. Some of these orphanages have so many kids and so few people to care for them (just through lack of resources) that what they really need is just personal attention and someone to really focus on them as individuals and show them love. I'm really hoping and praying that us being there will really make a difference to some of the kids, even if it's just for a day it'll make everything so worthwhile.

Anyway - thanks again everyone for being so supportive. Please keep praying for me and for the entire Uganda team and for the people we'll be meeting while we're there.

I plan on posting one more time before we leave, but just in case I don't, feel free to check out the youth group webpage as we hope to update it every few days throughout our trip: www.highway242.com