One less toe nail

Well Abi's computer won't allow her on the blogger website, so I am going to try to pass along her info. Sorry no pictures, and no guarantees on quality........

I have so much to tell you. Yesterday after i got done e-mailing you four boys
invited Caitlin and I to come play basketball with them, which was a big surprise
because you know how sweet my basketball skills are. :) anyway, we decided to go and
get a little exercise. So, as we were playing with (John, Paul, Trevor, and Jared)
They were being super nice to us, but still giving us a little bit of a challenge.
Well, John was passing the ball to me and I jumped to catch it and landed only on my
left leg buckeling my knee and smashing my big toe nail into itself. Yeah, that
hurt. We stopped playing after that and I just went to my apartment, took some pain
killers did a little homework and then went to bed for the night.

Today was an incredible day!!! We got up bright and early for some breakfast. Update
on the toe: My knee hurt a little this morning and made me a little wobbly and my
toe was extremly black and blue and a little bit swollen. Well, we loaded the busses
and headed on our geography field trip. We took a lap around the city starting on
the East....which by the way is the Mt Scopus. After getting ourselves oriented
geographically from there, through a catholic mosque, where we sang many hymns
because it had great acustics, we headed just down to the Mt. of Olives, where we
looked at the same stuff from a different angle. We learned about the different
sections of the old city, and about the City of David, which by the way did you know
it was only 12 acres big in the time of the bible. Then we headed south, to the
mountain in which Abraham would have walked up when he came to sacrafice Isaac. We
saw what he would have seen when he expressed his view for the city of Jerusalem. We
say where he would have sacrificed Isaac, which is just slightly up from the Garden
of Gethsemane....interesting. Then we headed a little more south to the Shepherds
fields where David would have played his harp. We saw Bethlehem from a distance and
the place that Rachel died when she gave birth to Benjamin. Update on the Toe: By
this time of the day it's about one, and it is swelling more and I can feel fresh
blood squishing up under it. We then headed west where we ended at Nabi
Samuel...which is Samuel's grave. It's now a Jewish Mosque where they come pray.
from there we could see the borders of the west bank, The areas of Joshua's battle
when he first arrived from the wilderness and we saw the hills of Ephraim...the
place that is promised to the lineage of Ephraim....me.

We then got back in the bus to head home, by this time I had had three bottles of
water, and only half of a sandwich because it was just so hot that I couldn't eat.
My toe was now really beginning to throb.... Well, we made it back to the center and
I decided I better go and talk to the doctor here about this toe. When I got to him
he said that the nail would fall off as the new nail starting growing in because
there was now way off the old one repairing itself. He said it would be a month of
pain and that I would need that foot to be good, so....I asked him if he could just
tare the nail off now, he said yes. I went into his office, he grabbed some plier
type things and ripped it right off. It hurt me so very bad! I was hot, and dirty,
and now had this sudden intense pain going up my entire leg that I got even more
hot, and then as he was cleaning it (remeber this is not numb) I started to get a
little dizzy. He gave me a seriously pain killer and sent me on my way. I had 7 sets
of stairs to make it down, as I started walking i got very dizzy, then nauseated,
then flushed and right as I made it down the last stair I passed out. More like
fainted. I was conscious the entire time it was like my muscles just didn't know
what else to do...so I couldn't talk and let those who were at my immediate rescue
know that I was okay. Well, they called secruity and they came with the doctor who
said...didn't i just see you? he helped me to my bed, elevated my leg and in ten
minutes everything was fine. He said it was a post tramatic fainting and that it
happens all of the time. I felt so embarrassed. That has never happened to me
before. I was a little weak....still and didn't eat much dinner but everything
should be fine tomorrow.

Mom, i love it here so much. I wish I could tell you it all, but I can't. thanks for
everything. John just invited me to go walk around the center with him and just look
at the gardens...which by the way the Muslim brides love to come take pictures
at....cool huh! To the end of this e-mail we have come to the conclusion that today
was a great day, and it was only day 2. read psalms 122 and you will know better how
I feel. I can't believe I'm here, sometimes I just have to pinch myself to make sure
I'm awake....thank you for sacrificing for me, and the sacrifice of one toe nail was
definitly worth it! :)

Jerusalem

Hi Everyone! I'm just sitting in the Austrian airport waiting to board my last plane to Jerusalem. It's been a long journey and I just crossed the 20 hours of travel mark. Crazy. I'm not sure once I get to the center if I can download pictures or not. I will do my best, however, I will keep you updated in words, so keep checking often. I usually get sick flying but not once this time, I guess it's true, I was meant to travel the world. I know this experience is going to be a great one and that I will be able to learn so much. I'm here with some great people who are also going to make this entire experience memorable. Thank you all for your love and support and your prays. I will keep you all with me. More Later...when I actually have something exciting to say, not just about flying. (mom, check your e-mail....everyday also)