Hit the ground running

Our flights went well. We won't dwell on it or rip on the rude rude rude lady in Miami that treated us like we were not customers of American Airlines. :) Other than one little issue with Nadia our travel day was perfect. We landed in PAP about five minutes earlier than scheduled and got home to the crew by 5pm. Viv and Meg made a great dinner and the only kid that seemed ticked off at us for being gone was Phoebe, she got over it quickly.

We got the kids to bed and got to work unpacking. At about 8pm just as we were about to collapse from being up since 3am, the phone rang and Beth said that a baby was on the way. Paige and I packed up and headed out for a night of excitement and praying. The labor lasted all through the night and then at 7:19 am a LARGE, beautiful baby boy arrived.

Mom and baby are doing well and we were so blessed to be a small part of witnessing the miracle of birth/life. We headed back home around noon. I fell asleep three times at the wheel getting our crew back down to Tabarre after the birth. Thankfully driving in Haiti is insane enough that even asleep you seem like a decent driver compared to most. ;)

We're anxious to get back into the swing of things this week as life returns to "normal".

Tomorrow night (Monday) we are having a big birthday party for Lydia and Beth. It is hard for me to believe that Lydie is two already. I vividly remember dragging Troy to the "prayer rock" to announce the news that I was pregnant. Time flies and these kids are growing up so fast. It makes me kind of sad. (But - NO, I am not having any more babies.) I'll try to get over to use internet somewhere to post Birthday party photos for the Grandparents.

Runners:
Would any of you planning to run the Disney Marathon in January of 2010 please write me and let me know. We're organizing all the runners to work together on a project and we may not be aware of everyone who has registered for the events. tara.livesay@worldwidevillage.org

(Photo of Britt and Paige taken last week in MN. Photo of Lydie taken by MK Smith in late September.)

700 miles to go

We are in Miami, getting excited to see our girls and Renald.

Our carry-ons are filled with an odd combination of items - including broccoli, cauliflower, and sugar snap peas.

We had a farily smooth trip through the MSP airport. The lady at the American Airlines counter gave us props for our system and wondered if maybe we'd done this trip a time or two. I told her that when you stand there at 4:45am with kids and stacks of huge bags you want to be very good at it and draw as little attention to yourself as possible. :) Noah melted down crying in the security line but we got through it no worse for the wear.

MK Smith put together a video for us from the banquet that took place Sunday night. Paige spoke about her experience with Renald that night. If you want to see it you can go HERE and enter the password: Renald

In the next few days we're going to put up a link to a permanent way to donate specifically to the Medika Mamba project now that the marathon is over.

Time to head to our gate. We'll find you from P-au-P soon.

More bitter than sweet

We head home at 6am tomorrow. Goodbyes are not very fun. Being "home" always reminds us of all that we miss out on. Our nephews and niece are growing up and it is sad to know they don't know us or us them. It seems like it should get easier, but it never does.

In spite of loathing the goodbyes, we are anxious to get back to love on all the babies and the big girls too. (I am sure Megan, Vivien and Hope all LOVE being called "big girls".)

If American Airlines and the friendly skies all cooperate we should be home in about 24 hours.

Friends/Family-
Thanks for your love. To all of you we got to spend a few precious moments with, please know we wish it could have been more.

Heading South-
T&T and the traveling team

More Marathon Pics

(getting pain meds)

(looking toward the finish)

(Rachel and Nadia)

(Noah and Cousin Josh)

(Click on any of these picture to enlarge.)

Marathon Pics

Race Report sans Photos

Thank you guys. I just read Troy's facebook page and am sitting here so touched by your love. I wish I could communicate my feelings better ... I can't possibly explain how supported we felt yesterday. Now I know why. :)

Last night I was informed that the Medika Mamba total was at $62,600 . That is nutty, nutty, nutty. (No pun intended.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

My Lydia Beth turned two yesteray. I thought of her at mile 18 when I wondered, "Have I ever been in this much pain on October 4th before?" The answer is no, she was c-section and it was much less painful. :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYDIE! We are really missing the kids at home and continue to pray for Meg and Viv and all the kiddos.

Race Report:
For non-runners, this will be far too much information - so skip this section.

Slept fitfully, nerves, nerves and a room that was far too quiet. (I am used to sleeping in a vortex of fans and noise.) Got up at 5:50am. Breakfast at 6:10. Left the hotel to head to start line at 7:05. We went into the Metrodome to stay warm and use the facilities. 8:08 was the time we crossed the start line. The first miles felt pretty good, the crowd is so thick that you almost need to run slow, that is a good way to start. The first hour was great. We knew Troy, Jen, Tess, Ike, Paige, Noah, Britt, and Chris were at mile 7. The photos are hilarious, we look so stinkin happy we almost look foolish. :) We high fived and did not stop to talk. A few minutes down the road we saw my sister-in-law Laura. At mile 10 we needed bathroom break number one. Someone had bowels that did not cooperate all that well. We saw my aunt and uncle and some super cool ladies that came from South Dakota right around that time. (It is all a blur.) At mile 9-10-11 I was having side aches and struggled to get my breathing to settle in right. I was very frustrated. I have never had that happen in Haiti. The hot humid air must agree with me. We stopped and ate at mile 11 when we saw our gang again. I whined a little bit and then Troy asked you guys to pray and by the half way point at mile 13 it passed and I never had a side ache again. Tina was aweseome because she was super chill with me when I needed to walk, drink, or ... uh ... the other thing I needed to do.

Miles 13 to 16 went okay but were mentally tougher because I was bummed that I did not feel more gazalle-like and fast. I was setting the pace and we already realized we would not beat 5 hours ... not by a long shot. My hips were killing me by then. At that point we re-adjusted our goal to beat a little old man who was in the 75-79 year old division. (You gotta have goals.)

At mile 17 we saw our peeps again and stopped to grab pain meds. From 17 on I don't think we ever went more than two miles without seeing someone we knew, it was awesome. We stopped to talk to Mom and Dad and Matt and my nephews at about 20. We used the bathroom again. Mile 21 I got the worst cramp in my left calf. I tried to adjust to run on the cramp and got a cramp in my left foot. oh.my.gosh.cramps.hurt.so.bad. That is another thing that never happens to me in Haiti. I never cramp while running. It was very odd. We walked quite a bit after that.

We saw the biggest crowd of the entire race somewhere between 21 and 23. All the different groups converged there and they were loud and totally obnoxious and made us laugh.

Right after that I saw friends from my old work (thanks Corey and Steph) and then friends from the 90's (Sue&Andy - I was in their wedding a lifetime ago) that I never get to see anymore ... that was so cool. We stopped to hug them and ate a banana at 23. I think the third and final emergency restroom break was somewhere in this mile too. Port-a-potties at mile 24 are not not not a very nice place. Blech. My recommendation is to avoid that scene at all costs. For me the cost would have been finishing with poo running down my leg - you do what you gotta do.

After that it was just a game of keeping the cramps from tripping me up and chatting with Tina about how thankful I was for her help. The finish of the race is beautfiul, you come up over a hill and the St Paul cathedral is on your left and the State Capitol building is straight ahead. We had enough juice left to finish fairly strong. (All things being relative.) The finish was really fun ... because finishing is a good thing. Thank you Lord.

End of report.

Okay - if you skipped the race report - the gist of it was that we spent a lot of time in the lav and Tina was patient with me. And we had lots of really good friends and family and people we love that helped us get it done yesterday. We love them so much. *I* love them so much. They were amazing.

Because I ran so stinkin slow we got back to the hotel and had to get ready for the banquet right away. No naps. I made a conscious choice not to think about how much REALLY REALLY MISS so many of the people we were about to see. I tried hard to live in the moment and just enjoy my opportunity to hug them and try to catch up in the 34 seconds we had together. I did not want to spend the whole night crying about that. I am doing that now instead. Paige spoke about Renald and did a beautiful job. Wally and Eleanor Turnbull were honored and were so cute to watch - they had no idea they were going to be honored. It was a great evening.


I get a lump in my throat everytime I reflect on how good you all have been to us. Because of you guys and your gifts of financial support, your gifts of love, your gifts of prayer -- we are hanging in and pressing forward. Your trust and support means so much to Troy and I. Seeing everyone made me wish we could come home and have access to your beautiful faces again. We miss you all so much.



I need to go get some sleepy little boys some breakfast. Our next four days are packed full of errands and visits, I am not sure I will be able to write very much until we get home on Friday. I will post photos later tonight from the race, they turned out so great I want to share them. You have never seen happier looking runners.

A Good Reason (that I lied to you)

It is Friday night. I said I would update totals. The problem is, the total climbs about $50 an hour and the gifts have not stopped arriving, so I need to delay the announcement until after the race. I apologize for lying, but it ain't over yet. :)

The winner of Troy's Haiti photo book is Lubens M. - I will mail it out to you on Monday. :) Thanks to everyone who rallied this last week and gave. Your gifts will help to transform a life and we're so very grateful for your generosity. What an encouragement you have all been to us!

A Message From Haiti

We saw this on Viv's blog. Lydie, Phoebe and Annie are requesting we bring back the cool weather. The problem is, we cannot. ;) They don't have clothes for this MN weather. I think it is supposed to be about 55 on Sunday. BRRRR.

We are shocked at the buzz and the placement of the Star Trib article and just so humbled. Lots of gifts have come in today as a result of the article, which means more children helped. Stuff gets done when God gets involved.

Tonight we are celebrating my Dad's birthday and Isaac again too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I am very thankful to get to be with him this year. Tomorrow Tina and I are going to get our race packets and to a Chiropractor appointment. I will update the totals tomorrow night and do the book drawing too.

With gratitude,
T & T & Tribe

America Florida Miami - You Decide

Conversations:
Noah- "Isaac Isaac Isaac - we are in America!" (at landing)
Isaac- "Uh, no actually we are in Florida, Miami."

Isaac- "I cannot wait to see all the beautiful things in America."

Pilot- "We are on our way into Miami, landing in 10 minutes."
Noah- "Can we call it MY-ami instead?"

When we were in the air -
Noah- "This is where God lives."

Isaac, looking at a AA sign advertising Hawaii.
Isaac- "Mom, American Airlines goes to Hawaii too? How do they know where everything in the world is?!?"
Me- "I guess they have a lot of maps buddy."
Isaac- "Who in the world makes all those maps?"

Noah proclaimed loudly as we came into Miami- "I CAN SEE THE WHOLE CITY OF AMERICA!!!"

We're laughing not stop at our silly boys. In all of 2008 and up until today, 2009, Isaac was in the USA about eight days total. It shows. :)

In other excitement Troy used this proverb (spoke it in Kreyol) in line when Haitians were fighting over who was there and who was cutting in line - "We have been here since the little cucumber fought with the eggplant." (Kreyol translation not currently available in accurate form.) They laughed and asked him where he learned Kreyol? He said, Bondye (God) to which they wondered if God could help them learn English.

Earlier on the way up the escalator a husky Haitian woman was saved from falling backward down the steps by a shoulder in her butt forcing her to stay upright. She had no idea that you should not grab an affixed railing while on a moving escalator. Crisis averted, we could not stop laughing. Troy actually said, "Catch her Tara" when he saw what was happening first. John McHoul only comes to America to watch the escalator show. He missed one of the best ones I have ever seen.

Thank Yous

We're off to Minnesota tomorrow, I think we're mostly ready to head out, we have been feeling much better with a few residual "things" that we're praying will end in the next two minutes or so. Noah and Isaac could not be more excited. Paige and Troy and I are glad to be going but couldn't possibly match the excitement of the boys.

(Photo of Renald and Karis Howerton taken Friday. Renald LOVED her.)

T & T are looking forward to a few random things in no particular order...

• sleeping without deet all over us
• sleeping with covers/blankets
• cuddling (or even just touching in bed)
• Honeycrisp apples
  
• family & friends
• hot showers
  
• campfires (someone - have one please!)
• really good pizza (as opposed to the pizza here - which is not really good)
• food choices galore
• stress free driving
  

Britt and Chris get to MN on Thursday night. We're all very excited to see them. The first few days in MN are full of appointments and meetings, but I will update the Medika Mamba Marathon totals on Friday night from Minnesota. The race starts at 8am on Sunday. The countdown clock must be Greenwich Mean Time ... not Central Time - so I guess we should ignore it. :)

Troy plans to be the "tweet-master" during our entire trip and especially during the race. Jen and Tess have a plan that allows Troy and the kids to find us at five points along the marathon route -- that will be a huge encouragement, Isaac's giant grin is guaranteed to boost our spirits.

I feel crazy relief to have the training done. I did not count on all this stupid illness. The month of September might be my least favorite month ever. I hope to stay coherent and upright for all 26.2 miles - praying the factors that have been kicking my butt will be miraculously gone by Sunday.

God is good and has shown up over and over. I am very thankful to all of you who have prayed and encouraged and given gifts to support this cause. I had a sense way back in May that this was a "God thing" (certainly an idea not just my own) and the last four months that has been proven over and over again. I could easily burst into tears each time I think about how much so many have given. I wish I could thank each and every one of you face to face - I really do.

Not to take anything away from each person who has prayed and given, but I want to especially thank a few really important people:


To Beth:
Thank you Beth for being an terrific friend and always getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to run with me on Fridays. Your pep talks are the best ... you're the original Haiti marathoner. I love and admire you and you make working in this city about 200 times more fun than it would be alone. You are also the only reason I ever even got the courage to run in Port-au-Prince. Thank you for being so awesome and supportive and strong.

Thank you to Shannon Hoffman for running along with me in CA each week. A virtual running (and prayer) partner turned out to be a very fun and helpful thing.

Thank you to Angie from IN for being the number one stat lover, encourager, and internet backer. Angie bought shirts for race-day for Tina and I that say "Running for Haiti's hungry kids" on the back.

Thank you to Troy for all the extra poopy diapers he had to handle at 6am because I was trying to get out the door. Thank you for the pep-talks and the patience and the water you delivered and the love you showed. I love you so much honey.

Vivien has a housemate now. Megan Haug has moved to work with Heartline and is living with Vivien at the WWV Guesthouse. It is great to have them there to watch over things but also great for them to have each other. They are talented and fun girls to have around. Paige has loved having friends just a couple houses down. The blessing of these ladies is big to the Livesay family.

Thank you to any and all who are willing to pray for the peeps we leave behind in Haiti. Megan and Vivien are now parents to five little ones and also co-workers of four Haitians. We hope that they can do charades to communicate when Kreyol/English fails them. They are also in charge of two houses -- praying that EDH shows them love and that the kids are all healthy and perfectly well behaved while we're gone.
Vivien is planning to potty-train Phoebe and we are planning to give her anything she wants if she does. Hope actually seems excited to stay with the "big girls" and has shown no sign of sadness as we've been packing and getting ready.

We'll find you after we get to the USA.

With love and deep gratitude,
Troy and Tara and Tribe

Benched

The traveling team is set. Lydie learned late last night that she is benched for this upcoming road trip. Her ornery strong-willed self just sort of soaked in the information without a lot of fanfare. We're expecting the fall-out tantrum soon. We have capable people in place that she can push to their limits.

Yes, it means that I am missing her birthday. And yes, I have significant sadness over that - BUT - she does not know it is her birthday ... and last year when we went to MN for the WWV banquet we missed Phoebe's second birthday. So it is fair now. ;) We wouldn't want anyone claiming we play favorites. There will be a party for her and Beth when we return ... and it will be big. :)

Five more sleeps to go until we head out of here ... and so much to do. We're enjoying having some adoptive parents in town this weekend. We plan to pack and finish up our work. We're even hoping to gather our thoughts and get Megan and Vivien and Jeronne all pepped up and prepped for the huge gift they are giving us by overseeing the benched group.

Remaining in Haiti:
Vivien-Megan-Jeronne - they are managing: Hope, Phoebe, Lydie, Renald, Annie

I am the freakiest freak of all freaks when it comes to leaving my kids. It always seems like an okay idea until about 48 hours before I need to go. There is no getting around the fact that I will cry, feel bad, have anxiety, and dread departure and the goodbyes. I am SO STINKING excited to go and run and see my family ... and I am SO STINKING sad about leaving my other kids. C'est la vie.

The Plan

With the amazing blessings of the funding for Medika Mamba we want to let you know what the plan is. Currently RHFH is our only partner-site administering the Medika Mamba.

In the coming 12 months RHFH will continue to put any and all kids that need the treatment into the M.M program. The funds you've helped us raise will more than cover their program for many years to come.

In total over the next few years more than 600 kids will be treated.

Bondye se bon!

Look at this progress ...

Dieuvlet, Peterly, Jonny, Gilderson

not without failures

I wrote this post on August 6th.

Each week (except for when she did not show up) since then I have met with the Mom and begged, pleaded, encouraged, asked nicely, asked meanly, and then begged some more for her to give J.P. the Medika Mamba each and every day.

I know she is not giving it to him. I do not know where it is going. He is failing. His health is poor and I see no improvement no matter what we say or do.

The choices get really difficult at this point. I feel frustrated, angry, and upset. I struggle to show her any love. These situations are the ones that discourage us the most. I don't know the remedy.

I am asking her to take him to Missionaries of Charity and leave him with them. I don't know how much longer his 10lb body can continue on without proper nutrition. If she is given the food but won't give it to him, I have no idea what the next alternative move should be. He turned one this month.

If the Mom won't do the work required to get the Mamba into him, I am hoping she will leave him with someone who will until he is stronger and ready to return to her.

More Success Stories - Medika Mamba

Begendy born in 2003
Suffering from Kwashiorkor when he arrived
From 29.9 lbs ---> To 35.05 lbs

Samuel born in 2004
Suffering from Kwashiorkor when he arrived
From 21.8 ----> To 30.2

These children recovered at Real Hope For Haiti in Cazale, Haiti. They do great work with malnourished kids and need our continual prayers.

A few things ...

• Troy is home. Toilets, refrigerators, children ... all happy.
• We had to take the Twitter feed off the blog for now. We will work on re-posting it tonight. The f-bomb guy was showing up all over - no longer just an Oregon problem.
• Troy brought golf balls home from MI. Phoebe is walking around saying "Wanna play soccer? Lydia get the soccer ball!" (Then she whips the golf ball for Lydie to chase.) Soccer / Golf - no big difference.
  
• Troy just left to go to men's prayer group. Noah said "May the force be with you Daddy." He also said last night "My Daddy is home, now I have the perfectest family in the wold."
  
• Renald is up to 23 pounds - exact same weight as Annie, trying to catch Lydie at 25.5lbs.
  
• The M.Mamba total has grown about $250 since Sunday.
• Busy day ahead, gotta jet.
  

New Numbers

I asked Renald to reveal the current Medika Mamba total. He is a numbers guy so he willingly agreed.


In case you missed his message ... Renald said: "Forty-Eight Thousand Seven-Hundred Sixty One Dollars have been given by amazingly generous people to help malnourished kids in Haiti with exactly two weeks left until race day." He adds, "How totally awesome is that?"

Readers Choice - With a Key * + #

This is a post in which you will be able to choose to either:
A.) Be disgusted
B.) Be entertained
or
C.) Both
(Key at bottom of post - see it first.)
I document this as my way of purging it once and for all.+

Okay. I said on Thursday night that when Troy leaves things tend to go wrong. Call it dumb luck, call it the devil, call it what you may. I call it sucky.

Shortly after I published my semi-jokish post about things that can happen when he leaves I was finishing up some work at my desk when I heard gagging and puking sounds coming from my bed. Noah sleeps with me when Troy is gone and he had quickly come down with what we believe is Malaria and was puking and 104 degrees. I got no chuckles out of that one. I wrote to Dokte Jen and called Beth crying and attempted not to lose my marbles*.

Since then, this little man has been in my bed many hours and has been creating massive laundry. The poor guy.

(photo taken this morning - on his 14th straight hour of sleep)

With no man in the house, this is our current security situation at the gate # - Impressed? I know that a twist-tie makes me feel very secure.*
This is the way the toilet looked from Friday morning until about three hours ago when I conquered and successfully unplugged it + after no less than 2 hours of combined time working on it. I won't ever show a photo of anything that disgusting* and I won't tell you about the "plunger incident"*.




 

I put the plunger in the bathtub once I was done with it, I then saw a piece of (brownish) corn sitting in the bathtub. I began to wonder if anything grosser has ever occurred? <>




This is what has happened twice since Troy left the country:
Our 1115 pound living, breathing dog smells worse than most dead dogs. I cannot take it any longer. I gave her a bath a few hours ago. <> If it is not resolved after that bath ... well then ... she must go*. Who wants her?

There is more ... but I think I will stop there*.

Friday afternoon I really wanted to be with sick Noah and Birthday boy Isaac. But I had made a commitment that could not be broken so we went to visit a beautiful mothers who is about to have a home delivery and get ready for that big event. It took many hours and I missed my boys (and girls) the entire time. When I got home we tried to make it up to Isaac by making cake, brownies, and pizza.+ The pizza had sliced processed cheese on it. <>
The store was out of real Mozzarella#. It was very very not yummy. # Isaac was gracious and we just had cake for dinner. The cake was totally under-baked and soupy and Isaac was gracious again.+ The ice-cream was perfect and worth all $12.00+.

Meanwhile Noah is not getting better very fast - although his high fevers have stopped+. He is tired, having tummy problems (that equal clean-up by an adult) <> and feverish. I have been attempting to watch as many Looney Tunes cartoons as he is requesting that I watch. It has been so fun - Porky Pig is my fave*!

Jeronne had to leave this morning, in the middle of total chaos, because her daughter is also sick. :(

But ... I finally fixed that toilet+.
By.Myself.
THANKYOUVERYMUCH. <>

KEY
* a lie
+ a small victory
# my failure (or maybe Troy's)
<> gag

Message to my husband:
I love you Troy. I miss you. I am glad you are being given a chance to share your life experiences and your faith with old and new friends in Michigan. + This dumb luck / devil / total suck-age does not change that. I unplugged a toilet by myself.+ Not sure if I mentioned that part.* :) Oh, and Tipap came and fixed the refrigerator.+ And I won't really give Peanut away. But I will not save any ice-cream for you.+ Have fun and enjoy your hot showers while you can. Tout bagay dako la. (Everything is okay here.)

Deep Questions of Our Day

I have no idea why Troy's tweets are profane if you read them in Oregon. :)

This week a photojournalist from Minnesota has been with us in Haiti working hard on a story on Medika Mamba and has been gathering video footage and information. I asked her if we were the same in writing as in person and she said, "mostly the same". She also noticed that only about 10% of what happens in a day makes the blog.

Yesterday Troy was able to take her to RHFH where she could see the many kids benefiting from M.M. She will return to MN to begin working on putting her story together - she hopes telling the story might result in more help for Haiti's kids. Be praying for MK as she goes home and goes to work editing.
Today we had a busy but great day at Womens Program. We have two women that will likely deliver in the next ten days. If you want to be praying for them their names are Natasha and Judith.

Tomorrow the day will start with a 12 mile run - my running partner and best friend and cheerleader, Beth, will join me again. I hope that this distance will seem easy after last week's 20 - but I am struggling with fairly significant anemia (stupid timing for stupid Malaria) and some pains caused by last Friday's long-run. The chiropractor attempted to re-align everything for me yesterday. A great run would be a big boost, and that is what I am praying for. (I knew it would be like this - not complaining - natural runners maybe don't hurt so easily - I am not a natural.)

My handsome, encouraging, sweet, kind and loving son is turning EIGHT tomorrow. I cannot believe how fast time passes. I remember meeting this same smiling little baby in 2002 like it was yesterday. Isaac is a little bummed his Daddy had to miss this one so we will try to make everything into a big deal tomorrow to cover for that. We've promised a trip to pick out a fun gift once we get to the USA and a BIG party with family in just two weeks. Tomorrow we'll spring for ice-cream and maybe even Visa Lodge Pizza (if we have four hours to wait- that is).

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY ISAAC!!!

(Nikki Petersen - we love you - Happy Birthday!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Asked by Noah- "What do robots eat?" Followed up with the even better question, "Do robots poop?"

Asked by Isaac- "How many days is 12 days? - because 12 days is how long it is till we go.But how long is that?"

Asked by the gateman to our neighborhood - "Who are you?"
(Apparently when I am clean, not sweating, and dressed up, I am totally unrecognizable to him.)

Asked by Noah- "Do they have a Target in Michi-can Daddy?"
(Someone is using Troy's guilt to leverage a gift for himself.)

Inevitably when Troy leaves EDH craps out and new varieties of noises begin in the neighborhood after dark. I won't lie ... I cried dropping him off and saying goodbye. Noah was funny tonight, he told me, "I touched Daddy's face with this hand but then I forgot and I washed it off." HA. I am not quite *that* dramatic. But close.

We're on the countdown for his return ... wondering if he can manage to go on an airplane, to America, without picking up swine flu or meningitis or landing in a hospital. His record precedes him, you know!? We're bracing ourselves for all possibilities. ;)

I hope to update Medika Mamba fund totals tomorrow and if Troy hooks me up with the pictures, I also want to share more Mamba kids' before and after photos.