I Hope They Call Me On a Mission Again?!?!!

Hello again dear family and friends.  If someone would have told me at the beginning of 2010 we'd be serving another medical mission and I'd be starting up the blog again from Connecticut, I would have laughed in their face--loud and long.  But here we are in Bloomfield, CT, serving a mission and I'm starting up the blog again. 

I know how much I enjoy looking at your blogs. It makes us feel connected so I hope you'll enjoy ours again too.

I think it's amazing the last post talks about our mission report in 2008 and this picture is taken just after Sacrament Meeting and our mission farewell on March 28, 2010. Things have moved fast so I thought I'd post how this all happened.

Friday, March 12 seemed like any other ordinary day. Things were winding up with work at Central Utah Clinic. Our contract expired on Monday so there were some last minute items that needed to be done. Dr. Doty, the main doctor who is over missionary health for all the missionaries, worldwide,  sent an email saying he couldn’t find our phone number and asked Doc to call him back, which he did around 4 p.m. Dr. Doty was sweet and complimented Doc on his previous mission. He said they were in a bind. They have openings for AMAs and no one to fill them. He asked Doc to consider serving again and it would probably be in the Washington D.C. area.

When Doc told me what Dr. Doty asked, I immediately felt the warm affirmation that serving again is what the Lord wanted us to do at this time. My second immediate emotion was tears. I love my family so. The thought of leaving them again was overwhelming. I cried. I remembered the homesickness we experienced upon arriving in Lombard, IL. Memories flooded back of looking out the window at the building and wondering what the family was doing at home and how the grandchildren grew while we were gone and we missed all of that. Deep sadness, yet excitement for serving the Lord and the adventure created mixed emotions. I called the family and again cried along with them.

That evening we went to dinner with Dr. and Lynette LeRoy. We were still reeling from Dr. Doty's invitation and how that would change our lives for a year. The next morning at breakfast, I looked at Doc and said, “We’re going aren’t we?” He nodded his head and responded yes. I again cried.

Monday morning Doc called Dr. Doty and told him we would serve and asked when and where we were needed. Dr. Doty said he wanted us to probably serve in the North America Northeast and we’d need to be in Connecticut by Friday, April 9. That was 20 days!

In later communication with Dr. McIff, the current Northeast AMA, we learned they weren’t leaving until Monday, April 26. We cleared the later arrival date with Dr. Doty. That gave us16 extra days.

The next tasks at hand were to fill out papers, get doctor and dentist exams and get our home in order, etc.