Nesting

I'm nesting and it's not because I'm pregnant...it's because we are leaving to go out of town!  This happens to me every time we start getting ready to go on vacation...I feel like the entire house has to be spotless.  I have cleaned ceiling fans, windows, blinds, washed every stitch of clothing in the house, even asked John to take off his pants today so I could wash them!.  I've vacuumed, cleaned bathrooms, picked up the backyard, packed, etc.  It looks and smells so nice right now!  We are leaving tomorrow for Tuscaloosa, Alabama on a mission trip with 22 other folks from our church.  I'm so excited about going on my first mission trip!  It is our anniversary weekend and we had worked out childcare months ago so that we could have a weekend together.  We had not made plans yet.  About three weeks ago a man walked in our SS class at church and gave out a flyer for this mission trip.  It was for the exact weekend that we had childcare, we were not working, we had no plans, and it was $50 a person!  We both looked at each other and thought why not!  We have wanted to do something like this for awhile and this just fell into our laps!  Apparently we will be working for the Alabama Baptist Relief Center.  The tornadoes there happen about 8 months ago and most of the debris has been cleared in this one section but the workers, laborers, churches, etc are tired and have been working for months and need a little help.  They are still trying to help displaced families with food, clothing, and housing...ones in this particular neighborhood were very poor already and lost everything. It sounds like we will be doing some painting, moving a family into a new/fixed home, sorting clothes and food at a distribution facility, and doing some carpentry work.  We are sleeping on cots at a local church and will have hot showers.  We will cook our own food at the church.  I wondered why after all these months in America are there still needs like this that aren't cared for and taken care of by the people in Alabama...maybe that seems like a strange question but it crossed my mind...apparently FEMA pulled out a while back and the only people that have been working still are the volunteers...churches, baptist relief groups, etc and as John said, if something of that magnitude hit Tallahassee and volunteers around our area had been working tirelessly for 8 + months, then the community would need/call on neighboring states to help out...and he said maybe those people just need a little break...you know everyone rushes in right after a disaster takes place but not many people hang around to help over half a year later when people that lost their entire house are still living in a hotel and have very little clothing...at least that was John's take.  Anyways, I'm looking forward to celebrating our 12th anniversary doing something that John and I have always wanted to do together....and we are excited to bless some other people!  From what our team leader said she was overwhelmed by our church's generosity in giving gift cards to Lowes, Walmart, etc. for us to give to families we meet.  She said she had not even counted all the gift cards she received and could not believe the stacks that she collected for our church office!  We get to take the gift cards to the work sites with us and give them to people as we feel led....so I'm already praying for that person!