Going to Poland

About two months ago, I volunteered to participate with Thrivent Builds Worldwide on a trip to Poland. TBW partners with Habitat for Humanity to build homes not only in other countries, but also in the USA. (There’s a link to the website on the left side of the page that explains it much better than I could.)

Anyway, so I’m going to Poland in August for 10 days. When I found out that I had been accepted as a part of the team, Emily was so excited. And then the next thing out of her mouth was “What kind of present are you going to bring me back?”

Yep, that’s our Emily. That girl was all about the "stuff". I told her that the only thing Poland is really “known” for is kielbasa and pottery. And I don’t think I’m allowed to bring meat back into the country. So she was online checking out Polish pottery to see if she liked anything. She decided that maybe I should just get her a hooded sweatshirt that said Poland on it. I told her I wasn’t going over to buy stuff, I was going over there to work. She ignored me. But I wasn’t fooling anyone. I’d have searched the country to find her that silly sweatshirt. And she knew it.

But she was excited for me. She even checked with her sorority to see if they would be able to organize a fundraiser to help me out. And she was so disappointed when she found out that her sorority couldn’t do fundraisers for individuals. They could raise money for Habitat, but not specifically for me. She must have said a hundred times how sorry she was. So she said that she would get some of her friends together to do car washes, bake sales, etc. All this she did on her own- I never asked once. Emily was not the type of person who was into the actual “doing”, but she was the type who would support you 100% in whatever way she could. We made a good team.

I had to raise over $1,000.00 to fund this trip. Two weeks ago my parents said that they were going to use part of Emily’s life insurance money to pay for it. I was speechless. Utterly speechless. They said it was what Emily would have wanted. She wanted so badly to do all she could to help me out. And even though this is not the way any of us wanted it to happen… she did. I’m going to get a locket with her picture in it before I go, so I can take her with me. And so I can tell everyone I meet about her. And I’m going to find that hooded sweatshirt.