New Nag and a Need

A number of days ago, a feeling caught in my heart.  The idea that this experience is invaluable to my children.  It shows them that anything is possible.  I particularly thought of #1, who has only one more year under our roof.  She needs to know that the world's the limit, but that it will require effort on her part, and sometimes quite a bit of effort to see things through.

When I made the appointment with the passport office on Monday, the automated voice came to a point in which it asked how many from my household would be coming with me.  I pushed one, but immediately felt a twinge of guilt (or something like that that I have no other word for) and felt that I should have pushed two.  I called back and spoke with a real live person and asked him if it was possible to add one more to the appointment, and then if there weren't two of us, would that be okay.  He told me that was fine.

Such a strange idea.  Two?  Okay.  Whatever.

I have since, after a lot of pondering and prayer, figured out who my second person will be, but here's the tweak behind it.

I spoke with the cousin who invited me to go the other night.  He mentioned that he hadn't spoken with the other woman, whom he had told me would be going with us, since the original conversation.  She, most likely, won't be coming.  Add to that, the letter I received and read yesterday from the Helping Hands office that stated no one will be allowed to work alone.  We must each have a companion.  YIKES!  So, not only do I need equipment, I need a buddy.

I'm pretty sure there might be someone else there who would jump in, but working in a highly emotional situation like that with a complete stranger?  Okay.  Do-able, but wouldn't it be better to work with an ally?  At least with the other woman who was originally going to travel with us, I would have had a chance to bond with her through our few days of travel before arriving in Furukawa.

So, here are the feelings that are nagging me.  I need to take #1.  The one thing that bothers me about this is the fact that the cookbook money and donations were never intended to take two of us to Japan--only me.  To me, that money is absolutely a sacred trust.  The other fact is that I don't want this to be a free ride for her.  I want her to learn from the experience of funding it herself.  I want her to feel the sacrifice that will make the experience sweeter for her.

As a young woman who's about to leave home, who has always lived a rather charmed life, this will be the opportunity of a lifetime.  This will be a chance to step out of her little bubble and see life in another part of the world but also to use her talents and skills to uplift and bless others--to use some of her natural compassion as she stands as sturdy as a rock.

#1 is an unusual personality.  Anyone who knows her, I believe, would say the same.  She's easy-going.  She's loving and sweet but nothing gets her down.  In short, her personality is very close to my mom's.  She is even and level.  She takes things as they come.  If any of my children could handle this, and not only handle it, but learn some very valuable life's lessons from it, it would be #1.

So we have a plan in place.  She's ready to jump in and get it done.  We'll see how this goes, but if it was meant to be, which looking back, I believe it was, it will happen.