Lots of lists!

Now I was registered for a Compassion International trip to Haiti.  It was March 11th.  The trip was not until November 7th.  I had eight months to wait!  I was so excited though, I started thinking about it right away.  And since I’m a list maker, I started making lists almost from the beginning.

The first list was of things-to-do for Compassion. 
They make the process easy by telling you all the basics in an email as soon as you are registered.  

There are several forms you have to fill out.  For the safety of the children, there is a background check, and there is also a travel release form, and a physician’s release.  I already had a passport, and no Visa is required for US citizens traveling to Haiti, so that was easy. I would need to purchase my airline ticket to get to Miami - the gateway city for our trip to Port-au-Prince - but not until a couple of months before the trip.

The next list was more fun: things I would like to take as gifts for Kimberlie, her family, and other people I would meet in Haiti.  Ideas on this list (and shopping for them!) was a work-in-progress for quite awhile.  More on that in my next post.

Another list I made was for personal items I would need to take along, including the recommended malaria prophylaxis.  The CDC website was the place I checked to see if I needed any vaccinations.  Luckily I was up-to-date on those.  And while on their website, I read (but did not worry too much about) the travel warnings for Haiti.  If God directed me to go there, I would trust Him to take care of me while I was there!

The final list I made (closer to the trip date) was a list of questions I wanted to ask Kimberlie.  This was on the recommendation of other sponsors who had gone on trips to meet their kids.  I had read many of their stories on “Our Compassion”.  They said in the excitement of actually meeting your child, it would be hard to remember all the things you want to ask.  As it turned out, this was the only list I didn’t end up using... but the reason for that comes much later in my story!

I may have had 8 months to get ready, but I was excited, and there WAS a lot to do!