Entrepreneurship - and great people

Wow. Typing the word entrepreneurship is painful. But there's a good reason for typing it. It exercises my mind. Really. Let me flex my mental muscles for you: gelatenous. Aaahhh, feel the burn.


So, here's the reason for typing entrepreneurship: we are currently in the business of earning money for this philanthropic adventure. We're not opening a business, but it sure feels like it.


Last month, we did chocolate-dipped strawberries for Mother's Day. This month, it was gourmet popcorn for Father's Day. This is Megan with a table-full of gourmet popcorn; the end of the production line. Lori and Shanlee would measure and mix the ingredients with melted vanilla almond bark. (For those of you as uncultured as me, that's white chocolate.) Then it would go on the table to dry out.


There are a number of things that amaze me about this whole process. Allow me to enumerate them for you:

1. A wife who will get no direct benefit from this journey, spending countless hours working on projects to help my daughters with arrangements, passports, permission letters from the consulate of the Dominican Republic, and, most recently, funding. To be honest, having two teenage daughters willing to spend time in another country helping children they don't know is extremely gratifying for a parent. Still, Lori has been the brains and the muscle behind these projects, and it is awe inspiring to me to watch - even when the muscle means grabbing sometimes less-than-enthusiastic girls by their bras and pulling them into action. Another evidence in an endless list that proves to me that I not only married up, I married waaaaaaaay up.


2. Two teenage daughters who are excited to go to someplace they've never been and help people they've never met. Watching Shanlee and Megan get more excited about this trip has been wonderful. The closer it gets, the more they are willingly jumping in to work. Hearing the chants of Ten more days!' is fun, especially in light of this fact: these particular teenagers have been taking French in school. We're going to a decidedly non-French-speaking country. It's not Paris, the Louvre, or the Eiffel Tower. It's the Dominican Republic, orphanages, and much-needed books. And they are, if they'll pardon my use of the term, geeked to go.


3. Every person who has contributed in any way to this cause. So many have given so much. I speak for all of us when I say, "Thank you!" We've seen people give much more than we were asking for the strawberries and popcorn. We've seen people buy more than they needed. We've seen people buy both strawberries and popcorn. Each contribution is appreciated - and, if I'm not mistaken, recorded by heavenly accountants. I hope you all feel the blessings of helping us with this service.


4. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Brielle, Kalli, and Joshua. They've given up hours while Lori, Shanlee, Megan, and I have worked on the strawberries and popcorn. The first few hours isn't tough, but after awhile, they want some attention. We've done all we could to balance it, and they have been great to play on their own.

I guess that's enough enumeration for today. Suffice it to say, I am surrounded by incredible people - here in my home and living all around me. Thanks to each of you!