The Setup

So, this is a blog of a trip I'm going on with my daughters - Shanlee and Megan - to the Dominican Republic. I'm sure you're wondering why the Dominican Republic, and why not in the winter when it's freezing at home. Well, let's back up a bit and I'll explain.



These are my daughters - Shanlee and Megan - and that's my arm, purportedly jabbing Shanlee in the forehead for freaking out on a ride at Disneyland. This whole story starts because of Shanlee. It's amazing how many things in my life start because of one or the other of my progeny.






Shanlee is trying to do some service while she's in high school - long gone are the days where a good GPA will get you a scholarship; now you have to give service, too! Well, a family in our neighborhood went to the Dominican Republic early this year. Their deal is to give away 1,000,000 books to people who need them all over the globe. They have a web-site dedicated to their adventures: http://www.discovershareinspire.com/. So Lori contacted our friends and asked if Shanlee could help. It started as a project to gather and send books to them. This turned into a trip for Shanlee to go help them in person - reading books, painting schools, etc. This turned into a trip for Shanlee and Megan.






Enter the problem (one of a myriad, but I'll spare you the details): the Dominican Republic has had serious issues with divorced or estranged parents taking the kiddies there to hide from the other parent. They have also had issue with people going there to get children they then put up for adoption. Because of the problems, they have become strict about getting kids into and out of the country. So, if we get the kids there, we won't likely get them out without both of us showing up to pick them up. Expensive. Troublesome. Frustrating. At this point, the trip seemed in jeopardy.



Enter the solution: me. (Hey, it's the one time in my life I get to be the solution - let me have my moment of glory). If we go through all sorts of flaming hoops and red tape, I can accompany them to the Dominican Republic and I will get to bring them home again! Plus, having a built-in translator isn't a bad thing (assuming, of course, that everyone speaks Book of Mormon Spanish...) So I get a trip to the DR (henceforth the official abbreviation for Dominican Republic for lazy people).



What are we doing there? Lots - but I need to give more information on what we are doing in terms of preparation and build up...in a later post. I'm not the young man I used to be, and late nights combined with early mornings are taking their toll on me.