I'm going on a trip!!

I can't believe it, but I am leaving tomorrow to go to the Dominican Republic with a group from my church to do mission work for a week! I agreed to go sometime late last year and the time has totally gotten away from me. This is my very first time to fly (yes, first time to fly, EVER) and believe it or not, I'm not the least bit nervous. I did have my pre-trip breakdown the other night when I was trying to gather all of my stuff because I wanted to take cute luggage and it was either way too big or way too small. My mom said, "the Dominican's don't care if your luggage is polka-dotted... just put you're stuff in ziplocs." It was pretty lame to pitch a fit over my luggage, but I knew that I was running out of time and there were plenty of things left to do on my list that I didn't think were going to get done. Last night I was putting everything in my luggage, and looked up to see this:

For many of you, you already know that Gracie (my dog) and I really don't like each other. Ha-- it may be because she tends to rank a little higher than me! (just kidding, mom!) Anyway, I couldn't help but really think that her laying in my suitcase was sweet! Way sweet!!

Please be in prayer for me and my friends, Ben, Neil, Amanda, Matt & Justin. Pray that God will help us to be sensitive to the needs of the people in the Dominican Republic. There really isn't a set agenda for the trip, we're basically just prayer walking and forming relationships with the people down there. I'm really excited about meeting the missionaries that we'll be working with, but most of all, I'm excited to see how God is going to use this experience to help me grow as a Christian.