Not by Jack Handey...

but close enough.

I know you all can tell by how painful my blogging has been that I'm not really comfortable with the whole "asking for money" thing. As if adding groveling to my resume wasn't enough, now I'm becoming an expert at gratefulness. The amount of encouragement (not to mention donations [we're over 50% paid for!!]) we've received in the last two weeks has blown me away. If I had any doubt that what we were doing wasn't the right thing, they've all been quieted by the floods of positive messages coming in. Here are a few, without names to protect the flattering:

Friend 1: Anna, you never ask for money. This isn't a big deal to help you out. Besides, it's something I wish I could do, so giving you the money makes me feel less guilty...

Family Member 1: We are so proud of you both for the work you have done in the past and we know you will continue - just because you both have big hearts & empathy for the unfortunate...

Friends 2-10: STAY SAFE!!!

Family Member 2: We will pray for you on your trip. I hope you'll keep us posted.

Friend 11: That is one heck of a way to give back!

Round about "Family Member 1" is where I started crying, and truly believing that we're doing the right thing. To answer a few common questions: No, we're not scared. Yes, we're very excited. We've already raised enough money for one of us to go without a problem, so we're 100% sure we're going. The pharmacies and hospital here have donated and pledged help, and I've never seen Stephan pound so much pavement and pass out so many letters.

Read this post because it really echoes a lot of what's going on inside me right now.

And read this post because it was one year ago today that I visited my first ranch, the photo of me is really cute, and WOW have I learned a LOT since then!!