Last week, I went to Portland, OR., one of my favorite cities in the U.S. My folks live across the river, I have wonderful friends there, and the whole place makes my hippy heart and hipster tastes so happy! :) The huge bonus to this trip was that I was able to go to the Medical Teams International headquarters and meet Jamie, the volunteer coordinator who sent me to Haiti. I am happy to say, and not surprised, that she was just as darling in person as she was on the phone. Jamie and I had a number of marvelous phone calls, before my trip to Haiti, and I was very excited to share my Haiti stories with her. Most importantly, I was able to tell her that I considered my "First Date" with MTI to be a huge success and I thought we (MTI and I) should go steady. I also had the pleasure of seeing Beth, one of the wonderful women I went to Haiti with, who is a volunteer at MTI and on the board of HFH.  The absolute BEST part about my meeting with Jamie, is that I'm going back to Haiti in February and I'm going to Honduras in October!!! February will be a challenge, even though my phenomenal boss has given me the time off, I'm pretty much out of PTO. I will have to fund raise at an Olympic level...prepare yourselves, dear readers, the begging will commence shortly! But, seriously, I am so excited about working with HFH and MTI again. Travel, new people, working frighteningly long hours doing work I'm passionate about (for free!). It's the Perfect Storm. It's an amazing feeling, finding something I feel so ardent about, and having something so remarkable to look forward to. Probably much to the annoyance of those around me, I've been having a hard time thinking and talking about much else. It's been a true gift. I think it would be easy to come back from Haiti feeling guilty about what I have, compared to so many people, or bitter about the fact that there are teen age pop artists who could build an entire hospital in a 3rd world country with the money they spend on pre-sorted M&Ms. Instead, I just feel grateful. Grateful for my supportive friends and family, a job I love, the opportunity to give my heart and soul to others, the sun rising over the rims in Billings, Montana. I also feel a huge sense of responsibility to continue being grateful, so I'm gonna give it my best shot! Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more more musings...and begging...I will definitely be begging. :)