72 Hours to Go

I truly cannot comprehend the title of this post.  We will be on a plane in 72 hours.  3 Days.  We have been planning this trip for over 9 months...I remember starting the countdown somewhere around 265 days.

We are both feeling a wide range of emotions right now.  We are mostly excited, but also anxious, even nervous - we don't know what to expect.  All we can hope is that we are prepared well enough for whatever this Journey may throw at us.

Last minute preparations are keeping us very, very busy - our apartment looks like a bomb went off, our spare bedroom is full of clothes, shoes, travel size toiletries and school supplies, and our fridge is empty.  We are completely finished with our vaccinations (Dukoral is nasty by the way) and we have a fully stocked medical kit all packed up.  What else can we do, really?  Just wait...wait to see what volunteering in Bali has in store for us.

Last night I picked up an amazing donatinon from the Gymtastics Play-It-Forward Program.  They donated a 12-ft parachute for us to bring to the school.  I'm sure you remember the parachute games you use to play  in Elementary school?  So exciting!  We are incredibly grateful and excited to share this gift with the kids in Bali.

I don't have much else to report, which seems crazy, because it has been over 2 months since my last post.  But really, these last few weeks have just been a "Hurry-Up-And-Wait" sort of thing.  I will be updating this blog mostly while volunteering in Bali, as its sole purpose was to help all of our readers connect with our experience there.  So many of you have helped us to get to this point, through your support, your donations, and your love and passion for what we're doing.  So please keep informed and subscribe via e-mail to receive updates while we're on the road.

You may also want to check out www.adventuretoanywhere.com, which is my (Ashley's) personal travel blog.  It includes posts from past travels and adventures, product reviews, and practical travel advice, and I will be writing in much more detail on there about our experiences on our days off in Bali, as well as our time in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Japan.

Thank you all again SO much for all that you have done to make this dream a reality.  Next time I post on this blog, I will be either en-route, or in Bali.

Love!

xoxo A

25 Days & $295 To Go

Good morning my beautiful friends & family!  These are the never-resting hands of Ashley typing.  I hope this Monday morning finds you well, and hopefully not hurting too badly (mentally or physically) from last night's Super Bowl…I wasn't watching (and honestly can't be bothered to, sorry Robinsons!!  Bad niece / cousin award!!) but from what my social media feed tells me, many of you Broncos fans (again, sorry Robinsons) will be mending broken hearts today.

But, let's talk about something that doesn't hurt!  WE LEAVE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA IN 25 DAYS!  It's the craziest feeling…it feels like it's so incredibly soon.  And, even though we have been preparing for this thing for MONTHS (8, exactly), I still can't help but feel a little bit underprepared.  But I think that's how things like this are supposed to feel.

Let me start off by sending out a massive, heartfelt thank you to all of our recent donors.  We are overwhelmed by all of your love and support.  We have been touched by all of you, and even surprised at where some of these donations came from…as they came from the people who we would have least expected (ie. clients at work, old friends from high school, a friend of my parents' whom I haven't seen in years)…  When we originally started on this adventure 8 months ago, we shot high and set our fundraising goal at $6,000.00 to help offset the costs of the volunteer portion of our trip, and also to help provide us with the opportunity to purchase and bring gifts and supplies to the school in which we will be working.  One of the major costs we were concerned about were vaccinations, which would have rung in at over $1,000.00 all by themselves, and we were absolutely ecstatic to learn that these were, in fact, covered by our health insurance (aside from the administration & consultation fees).  This was a HUGE help.

After some realistic re-evaluation, we have reset our fundraising goal to $4,500.00.  This is still enough to help offset costs and provide supplies to our students.  We still don't know the ages of these students, but we will let you know as soon as we find out.

This brings me to my next point, which is the figure of how much we have currently raised.  My heart is fluttering just typing this.  Through our hard work and the incredible support and generosity of our donors, we have managed to raise $4,205.00.  I repeat, $4,205.00.  THAT IS UNBELIEVABLE.  We are only $295.00 away from our goal and we still have 25 days to achieve it.

We cannot even conceptualize the types of challenges, lessons, and opportunities that await us in Bali, but we are positive about one thing; we will definitely be able to make a difference in the lives of these incredible little people, partly because of our own passions and generosity, and also (mostly) because of the passion and generosity of all of you amazing people.  "Thank You" does not even begin to cover how we feel.  We wish we could pack you all into our (tiny) backpacks so you could come to Bali and experience this with us.  But, for now, this blog will have to suffice in helping you to feel the way we do, and the way we will once we arrive.

A Small Start!  The supplies I have purchased so far.

I have been in touch with our volunteer coordinator over the past few days, and we have sent over all of our flight details, arranged for our airport pickup in Denpasar, Indonesia, and paid our final program fees.  We received a big fat orientation booklet from IVHQ to study in the next few weeks before departure, and we're brushing up on our Bahasa Indonesia language lessons.  I even went out and purchased our first round of school supplies.  We plan to pick up a few more things before we leave, but also to buy a lot of things for the kids once we're in Bali.  

I'm not sure when exactly the reality of what we are doing will hit us, but I can tell you that it hasn't quite hit us yet.  What an incredible adventure ahead.

Again, I'd like to thank you all from the bottom of my (and Sean's) heart.  You are all amazing, and we wouldn't be getting on that plane at the end of this month if it weren't for each and every one of you.

If you'd still like to make a donation, you can do so at http://gofundme.com/ashleyandsean

Also, please SUBSCRIBE to this blog by entering your e-mail address at the top left hand corner of this page!  An e-mail will be sent to you for confirmation (which I believe includes a link that you have to click to confirm that you did in fact subscribe) and then, you will begin receiving e-mail updates every time we post something new to this blog, which will include text posts and photos while we are in Southeast Asia.

We love you guys so much.  Words fail.

xoxo Ashley

Look at our weird currency!  From the top we have Hong Kong Dollars, Thai Baht, Indonesian Rupiah, and Japanese Yen.