Write of Passage 2 --- A New Journey Begins

El Yunque National Rainforest - Puerto Rico

Hannah's Rite of Passage began 11 months before we actually boarded the plane for Puerto Rico on July 28, 2012. My middle girl had a very specific picture inside her head of what she wanted her mother-daughter trip to look like. Turning that trip into a reality, however, proved quite a bit more challenging than I had anticipated.

First and foremost, Hannah wanted the essence of her adventure to be a mission-oriented. An opportunity to give aid, assistance, support and care to those in a particular need--be it people, animals, or nature, as in our all too often neglected environment. We googled, we hunted, we networked. We talked with those who had taken mission trips in the past, with those who lived among the less fortunate, and with those who knew a friend of a friend, who might know someone we could contact. We did a lot of leg work. We turned over many a stone. Throughout all our months of planning, we rode a roller coaster ride of emotion, as our ideas materialized and then dissolved, over and over again. We got excited, and disappointed. Energized, and discouraged. In the end, when we finally had every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed, and we knew where we were going, and had booked our flights to get there....when we were confident, and clear, and ready to roll....that's when everything fell apart.
Little did we know, that as it did....it was actually all falling right into place......