MIA

Yes, I have been MIA. Crazy week. And then I ditched the old phone and got John's iPhone, so I have been spending time trying to figure it all out. So adios ole flip phone...you lasted way longer than I thought!

Part of this week's busy-ness has been learning how to be a nursing clinical instructor, a new task I am taking on this fall, and working on plans for Kenya. I am really excited about both. But especially excited about getting to go back to Kenya. We have a great team this year and are expanding the trip. Over the past 3 years we have taken 3 separate teams to Tenwek hospital to perform cardiac surgery on kids over there. Our original team was composed of about 12 people. We have learned a lot from each trip and continued to expand and grow, collecting staff from hospitals all over the country. In past years we have done surgery for a week. This year we are doing 2 weeks of surgery and the planning has begun. It has been a lot of fun this week to shift over to thinking about preparations from that standpoint. And it has been really fun to start talking to our nursing team this year and to get to be a part of their experience. Some things are so hard to explain about the time there, but I look at each person on our team and can see what an integral part they will play and can't wait to see their eyes a-glow as they are serving over there. This is one of my favorite parts of the trip...just seeing the vision grow as more people participate. In planning for things, of course I have been looking at pictures, so here is one of my favorites from last year.