Good news!

There's so many things to tell, I'm not sure where to start. :) First of all, I'd like to point out that today is 40 days until we leave. I love the significance of 40 days here....several points of good news and preparations happened this week (patience...I'll get to that) and it's 40 days until we leave. I'm looking at this 40 days as more of the "major change/transformation at the end" significance we see in the Bible rather than the "trial" 40 days. 

First..an update on the crate. It has moved and is on its way to New Day, just slowly. It's rainy season in Zambia right now, so apparently this makes for slow travel for something large like our crate. We pray for timely travel and its arrival before us to New Day.

Next is great news that we have more equipment purchased and several things donated. Suzanne O'Connor, who is a prosthetist/orthotist in Dallas, bought us a nice heat gun and air hammer. A big THANK YOU to Suzanne for your donation! 

Also, I talked with Chris yesterday, and she has bought a Trautman (carver/sander machine) and vacuum pump for the trip. These will not fit in our suitcases, so we will be paying extra for those to go on the flight. 

Prosthetic Promises also received a VERY generous donation this week from a couple from my home church in Clifton, which will go to covering these last purchases, extra baggage fees and other expenses. Praise God for this donation! We are so very blessed with all of the donations we have received and the prayers from everyone. 

Crate Update

Apparently our crate that had arrived in South Africa has been stuck in Johannesburg. There was the additional charge once it got to South Africa that was paid, but we are unsure why the crate has not been moved towards its final destination at New Day. John will let me know as soon as he hears something. The company that shipped the crate is checking into the issue. Please pray the crate transportation doesn't get held up much longer. It'd be nice to know all of our supplies are awaiting us to get to New Day rather than a "down to the wire" situation. 

In other news, it's just 46 days until we leave! I'm excited but getting nervous. For some reason, I'm beginning to feel like I'm preparing for a major exam. Do I know enough and am I prepared enough to pass the 2 week exam on prosthetics? *Insert flash backs to preparing for my board exams here.* Prosthetic Promises' new website design is finished and up. Visit www.prostheticpromises.org. Go to the About Us page and read about John and Chris. I think my nervousness stems a lot from the fact that I have NEVER been on a mission trip; they have been doing mission work for a while. I'm continuing to mentally prepare and pray for knowledge and strength when on this trip. 

More donations!

I received a big box of donations from a practitioner in Nebraska that I went to school with. He gave me a phone call to find out where to ship the box so we got to chat and catch up, which was so nice!

You can see in the top picture on the left are two knees, which is awesome! Donated knees are a big advantage since they are so costly if we needed to buy them. The bottom picture is a variety of feet, which we will save for the next trip since we had so many feet donated that were sent on the crate. So basically I need to pack the items from the top picture in my baggage. I'll just mix the parts with my clothes to hopefully equal out the weight...all the parts are metal, so I need to be mindful of the 50 lbs limit. 

A big THANK YOU to Brandon at Premier O&P in Nebraska for the donations! 

John in the news :)

John was interviewed by our local newspaper, The Weekly News of Cooke County, about our upcoming trip. (*Note I had to do some copy and paste/re-arranging work to get the article to fit here on the blog while still large enough to read.) 

Also news...John emailed me to report our crate with supplies has made it to South Africa, which is great news! However, they charged us another $940 which is not so good. John and Chris had already paid around $6,000 to ship the crate from Houston, so the grand total to get supplies there is pretty expensive. 

Since the crate was shipped in November, I have gotten several more donations of used parts which we want to take with us, especially the knees. Each of us get 2 bags to check for flights without extra charge. Extra baggage allowances are $163 ahead of time and $200 if we purchase when we get to the airport...obviously we'll be figuring out how many to purchase ahead of time.

Our trip is getting closer! 80 days left. 

God, I pray that in the coming weeks as we make final preparations that we remember You take care of us and will be with us every step of the way. We pray that the crate makes it safely to New Day from South Africa and that funds will be available for final expenses for this trip. Amen. 

Getting closer!

We're in 2014 now...which means we're getting closer to our trip! I have officially started a countdown app on my phone today. I'm all about doing countdowns, it makes things more fun. :) We're 103 days! I'm getting really excited.

And speaking of something exciting, Darbi Tidwell from New Day Orphanage wrote a book about an orphan in Zambia. It's fictional but parts of it are based on reality. It's really an amazing book! You can purchase it on Amazon here. The story is based in present day, but I repeatedly found myself having to remember it is not set in the distant past. Life is so different in Zambia. So different than my comfortable little world here in Texas. I am truly blessed to live the life I do. I really encourage you to read this book! 

We'll begin more preparations for our trip soon including vaccinations and packing. We're allowed two bags each for the flights without an extra charge, but I'm sure we'll be taking a few extra bags with some supplies that we didn't get to send on the crate. I know for sure I have a few more parts/supplies that have recently been donated at my office that I'll try to squeeze in my packing. 

With all my talk about not knowing what to expect when we get to Zambia, I haven't thought of Jason's point of view. Chris, John and I know what work we are doing there...making prostheses for people who need them. Jason knows he will be helping with construction at New Day but doesn't know exactly what all he will be doing. That would stress me out, but he seems okay with it. He's had experience in helping build houses so he's somewhat prepared. And I know we'll be getting more info as we get within a few weeks of leaving. I'm just always "prepare and plan WAY ahead of time", which makes me impatient sometimes. :)

Shipping supplies to Africa

As I sit writing this post, I'm waiting at my office for an overnight shipment of a brace from Kentucky. I can order this type of brace as late as 9pm central time and receive it by 9am next day from UPS in Texas. Amazing how efficient things can be with planes and UPS. 

That being said, I find the process of shipping supplies to Africa amazing also. I checked in with John for an update on shipping of all our supplies. He and Chris built a shipping crate, 8'x4'x4', to pack all the parts, tools, equipment and a few work benches into. Paperwork has to be in order for shipping, which they have now. They plan to take the crate to the Houston port on Monday that will be transported by ship to a port in Africa. From there, it will travel by truck to New Day Orphanage in Zambia where we will be in April. This all takes several months! John said the crate weighs about 2,000 lbs loaded and will cost about $4,000 to ship. In the crate is not only supplies for our trip in April, but also supplies and equipment that can be left there at New Day for us to use when we go back for another trip. This is exciting! 

A picture John sent me of the crate. 

God, we pray that transporting the crate to Houston, the paperwork, and the process of shipping all go smoothly so that everything we need will be at New Day when we arrive. We pray for safe travels for John and Chris on the road from Temple to Houston.

It's official...we have dates set and plane tickets!

Yay! We have set dates for our trip to Zambia. We will leave April 16th and return May 2nd. The flights are from DFW to Detroit to Amsterdam to Lusaka and then returning is from Lusaka to Amsterdam to DFW. Layovers are only an hour or two so no time for sightseeing, but that's okay. Though we've been planning and making preparations, for some reason the decision on dates and purchasing plane tickets has made it just so much more real for me. We're going to ZAMBIA to make prostheses for people! A dream come true! (Granted I never envisioned a location to do mission work, just know I've always wanted to do it.) 

Jason and I have started a list of things to research and will be compiling a list of things we need to make sure to take. Of course his big questions are what is our international cell phone/data plan details and what type of internet availability is in Zambia. I already thinking of "What is the best comfy outfit to wear on the flights that doesn't seem like I'm wearing pajamas?" :) Next in preparation on mine and Jason's part is checking out what vaccinations we will need and getting appointments with our doctors for those. 

I stopped by to see Chris and John in Temple this past Thursday to drop off some donations we got from Medi (a manufacturer of prosthetic parts/supplies). They donated some very nice liners! THANK YOU MEDI!

Chris and John have been boxing up parts and supplies in plastic tubs to ship over the Zambia. They will build a crate 8' long x 4' wide x 4' high to pack all the supplies in to ship over at the end of November. The crate will leave from Houston port and travel to Africa, then will be trucked from the port there to New Day Orphanage where we will be staying for our trip. It will take several months for the crate to get there and will be pretty expensive. We will be able to send a couple of work benches and equipment that can be left at New Day for future trips.