What comes easy goes easy...

As I am sure many of you have been anxiously awaiting these updates from me I must first say thank you to those of you who have been patient with me thus far. Yes, I have arrived in Vancouver safe and sound and have been here for over a week and with very little access to Internet and even less time to use it! We have been SO busy, this first week has just flown by. but I do apologize to anyone who was worried about my mortal state.

As I continue to try and fill you in on the details of this amazing international journey, I want to take a moment to reflect on what it took for me to get here...Now that I am out of the US I can safely and comfortably admit the doubts I had before my arrival. Between the responsibilities of my job, the cost of travel, my brother's wedding in Belize this month, and a near appendicitis scare I had plenty of reasons to not come here. Karena even assured me that if it was too much of a hassle I was more than welcome to back out.

But when you want something bad enough, you don't let anything get in your way. For every obstacle that got in my way I had a hundred doubts fill my mind. "Was now the right time to do this?" "What will I be getting out of this?" "Am I letting people down by leaving for three months?" It would have been so easy to let those doubts influence my actions. But what I gave up this summer is nothing in comparison to what I now understand I will be gaining and already have gained.

I have met 18 fabulous participants from all over the world who have now become my family and I am looking forward to introducing you to all of them over the course of the summer. We have already learned a great deal from each other and from our first week of training. And I know we will continue to learn with our host families this weekend and our experience with the children at Camp Elphinstone.

So for those of you grappling with a decision like mine, "Go or don't go" please remember, "You will always regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did" Go. Pursue your dreams. Let yourself grow. You will not regret it. I sure don't!