to me, this is what it's all about... (natalie)

A HUGE thank you to everyone who came to our annual banquet last Friday! I loved seeing friends from past expeditions and meeting new friends.

Thanks to everyone's generosity, we raised money which will be used for the construction of The Little Bug. Right now, The Little Bug (El Bichito) is a drop-in center, but we are helping them convert it to a home.

We had both a silent and live auction. Both fun. After the auctions, we told the story about little Delia shown here. Delia is one of our El Bichito children and she came for a medical exam with the doctors on our summer expeditions. They found a fairly large tumor in her ear that needs to be removed. Telling someone down there that they "need to see a doctor" does no good. They don't have the money so they simply won't see a doctor.

Last Friday we outbid each other for Jazz tickets, for vacation packages, for chocolates and other goodies. But when we simply asked people to help us pay for Delia's surgery without anything in return, several hands went up.

And that's when I cried.

So thank you. Thank you Annette Bell, Morgan Humphries, Ron Steele, Grant Southworth and Wayne and Pam Merrill. Thank you for taking care of Delia.

And I WILL keep you informed of Delia's progress.