We made it to Santiago. Our flight actally went really well considering the extra DVD battery I brought was supposed to last 8 hours and it only lasted 4, and the benadryl I gave Austin finally kicked in the last hour and a half of the eleven hour flight. The crew was very helpful with helping me on and off the airplane. We got into the airport and had to get our visa. Well, that turned into huge mess. To make a long story short had to be escorted by police through the airport in order to try to pay for my visa. Credit cards weren't working and silly me thought I whould exchange my money before leaving the states for peso's and they wanted american money in Chile. Right outside of the airport was quite interesting.....lots of shacks with broken roofs, burning garbage and lots of packs of dogs. Once we got to the B & B the owner was very nice. Austin and I are in a room shuffle at the moment, won't be in our permanent room till Monday, needless to stay when Bill arrives we will be switching to a new home away from home. Much closer to the clinic and something bigger to fit the three of us. Went exploring With Oula and her son Yussef today. We took a walk to the Marriott to see where Ramon's office was, walked around the mall and the huge area of resteraunts surrounding it. Got to see a Home Depot, Mcdonalds, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Fridays, Tony Roma's just to name a few. Not doing very well on the whole language thing, hopefully it will come with time. That about sums up our first day here. Looking forward to Monday to start therapy, and really looking forward to March 22 when Bill comes in.

Well, it's 0300 in the morning and big surprise.....I can't sleep. My nerves have got the best of me. My stomach is in knots. We leave tomorrow for Los Angeles and on Friday Austin and I take off for our journey to Santiago. I have so many emotions now. I am very excited, nervous and scared all at the same time. How can that be? I know this is going to be a great experience and that Austin will gain so much from it, and me too, so why am I so scared? To distract myself, I've been looking through some old papers that I have lying around. I found a poem that often describes our lives and I thought I would share it. It is called Welcome to Holland by Emily Pearl Kingsley.
"I am often asked to describe an experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this":
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo "David", the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland" you say? "What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy!, All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
"But there has been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland, and there you much stay."
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, filthy place, full of famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there a little while, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
The pain of that will never, every go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.
But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.
This poem is so true. If it hadn't been for Austin, we may never have met some of the wonderful people in our lives that we have now, we may never have gotten the chance to go to another country, like Chile, we may not have experienced the bonding we have as a family, and we would have not had the chance to meet and raise such an inspirational, hard working child like Austin. And Zach is special too in his own ways. He has learned many different things that many six year olds probably don't know. He is a great helper, understanding and caring big brother and son.
I feel many people can relate to this poem in many ways, not just families with a disabled child. It can put a new perspective of the way we think of things. I know it did for Bill and I.
I'll let everyone know when we arrive in Chile. Thanks for all your support. We are very blessed to have such special people in our lives.

We have been blessed with so many families and organizations helping us to fiance Austin's trip to Santiago. A big Thank you to the Long Family, Joi and Sheila who helped set up fund raisers through Asian American Karate. Thank you to all the dojo family and friends who helped contribute to the cause. We are so lucky to be part of such a great dojo and have these wonderful families in our lives.

We are looking forward to going to Chile. We will be leaving Thursday February 26 to drive out to Los Angeles, and on Friday we will depart for our 11 hour plane ride to Santiago. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I will update everyone once we arrive and then periodically there after.

My family held a fund raiser in Cleveland this past weekend. As a surprise, Zach and I flew in. I'll never forget the look on my mom's face when she opened the front door and saw us standing there, kind of like the look Zach had walking outside to the car and feeling the cold air!!!! What an incredible night we had. We cannot say thank you enough to everyone who helped put the fund raiser together, from collection of donations to countless hours of organization. Thank you to family, friends and friends of friends for their support and gracious donations throughout the night. We hope everyone had a great time. We are looking forward to our upcoming journey to Santiago.