india blog

Everyone keeps asking me why I set up a separate blog for India. Here is the answer: We needed several thousand dollars to purchase our dental equipment that we were to take with us to Rising Star Outreach. David Archuleta got on board and raised thousands of dollars for this purpose! We were not only able to purchase all the equipment with the money he raised but the thousands of extra dollars left over is going towards the building of a new portion of the school there for the children among other things there at Rising Star. I was asked by several of David's fan sites to set up a blog of our experiences there at RSO so that David's fans, especially those who had donated, could feel a part of the whole experience. I didn't want to post to my personal blog as I didn't really want the entire world of David's fans having access to it so thus I set up a completely separate blog for our Rising Star Outreach experiences.

What is Rising Star Outreach? It is a school, like a boarding school really, that was started by an LDS woman from Atlanta, Georgia named Becky Douglas. The children of RSO have parents who have Leprosy. These types of children in India are denied education because of the horrible social stigma of Leprosy. If a parent has it then the children carry that stigma for the rest of their lives, and they usually end up getting Leprosy as well, leaving them destitute and begging on the streets. So the cycle continues - no education, Leprosy affected, begging, dying. Their lives have no hope. That's where Rising Star comes in. The purpose is to stop the cycle. The children live there at RSO, are cared for, and are given a good education especially in English. If these children know English by the time they enter the work force their earning potential goes up 500%.

The children there had never seen a dentist before, so we went in and spent a week there at RSO doing dentistry on all 160 of them. We saw so many miracles that week. Just the fact we got through every single child was a miracle of it's own! Our hope now is that other dentists will also go in and continue the work. We left our dental equipment there for that purpose.

It was the most amazing life experience that I could never put into words.

I continue to post to my India blog so again here is the link:
http://rsoindia2009.blogspot.com/
(or you can click on the link on the upper right)

privacy, please.

The time has come to make my blog private. If you would like keep following along then please email me or leave your email address in the comments.

Also, it's true...I have finally posted to my India blog! I hope to post daily for the next week or so. It's a daunting task since I took over 1500 photos while I was there!
http://rsoindia2009.blogspot.com/

america the beautiful

About 3 hours ago we were driving down the street in Delhi, India. It happened to be the street on which a lot of the embassies sit. As I watched out the window, looking at each embassy as we passed it, suddenly there it was; the American flag. It sat on top of a big white building, and on the side of the building was the Seal of the United States. As I looked at that flag and that seal, I was filled with emotion, filled with such a great love for my country. My country. The land that I love. I have never in my life felt so much love and appreciation for America as I do right now. That is what two weeks in India has done for me. Words cannot describe how very blessed I feel to live in such a glorious land. My time here in India has been amazing and surreal and I would do it again in a heartbeat, but what an eye-opener it has been. A most humbling experience to say the least.

I sit here now in the Delhi airport, waiting for our 2 a.m. flight. I'm coming home to my beautiful America. I'm coming home!

I can't wait.

India

I am headed to India and I have set up a blog specifically for my India trip. I will try to post while I am there but there are no guarantees. It may have to wait until I get back, but hopefully not. The internet connection (I will be at a Leper Colony) will be spotty at best, and we are sure to be exhausted after each long and HOT day. I can't even explain how excited I am for this! It's sure to be a life-changing experience.

http://rsoindia2009.blogspot.com/