Habitat build to Chiang Mai has been posted!!!!

It's official! I'm a team leader and my first trip is up on the Habitat for Humanity Global Village Website!!!!

Please check it out:

My build info page: click here to see it!

Chiang Mai, Thailand
July 31 - August 14

Weekend in DC

This past weekend I spent in DC. Christina (my roommie) and I drove down Thursday for a Doctors Without Borders information session. I've had this organization at the back of my mind since I decided to apply to midwifery school. They have a strong presence in Haiti (before and after the earthquake... Click here to donate to keep funding their international efforts) and recently I've started thinking more about the possibility of joining. Trouble is that you need 2 years post-graduation experience (a good idea, frankly) and you can't go with a spouse or children. So, those timelines don't work together very well. But, placements are generally 6 months to a year, so it wouldn't be as long as the Peace Corps committment.  It was a great information session and gave me something to think about.

Otherwise, I spent the weekend at Natalie and Andrew's house, playing with "my" sweet little Audrey. I've posted about her before. She's 10 months now and is mobile - crawling everywhere and even starting to pull herself up into standing. Soon that little chica will be walking - heaven help mama and daddy then!  Here are some great pictures of that gorgeous girl:

BATH TIME!

This week is Natalie's 30th birthday. I was happy to be able to go down close to her day to celebrate. Of course, I had to bake a cake and sing a round of "Happy Birthday".  :)

Weekend in Chicago

The weekend before last, I traveled to Chicago for my Habitat For Humanity team leader training. I'm so excited to start the journey as a team leader. After participating in builds in Tanzania (2002), India (2005) and Romania (2009), I will be leading my first team to Thailand this summer (watch for an additional post on this trip). The training this weekend outlined the responsibilities and procedures of being a team leader. It was a great training with lots of similarly minded people. Here's a picture taken at the end of training.

One of the perks of attending the Chicago training was that I was able to stay with a good college friend who is a Physician Assistant in Chicago - Jackie. She took took care of me for a couple of days while I was in Chicago and took me into her little (mostly furry) family.

One evening, we took a stroll along the lake. The edges are still crunchy and frozen, but most of the lake has thawed. It was simply beautiful to walk along the half-frozen beach with the Chicago skyline behind us. Such a beautiful city!

Another really exciting pice of this trip was seeing a highschool friend who I had not seen in nearly eleven years!! (Since highschool). It was just thrilling to see this boy-turned-man who was a best friend of mine through much of highschool. We remembered quickly why we'd been such good friends. (Thank you Facebook for reconnecting us!)

All around it was a great weekend!