At Any Price

All of a sudden, I felt really cold and strange. I'd never felt like this before, expect maybe the last time I'd done this, in college.  Although everything about the environment felt sterile, I felt dirty. I looked down at the needle and tube running through my arm, and the machine spinning and whirling to separate my blood platelets from what could be sold to a pharmaceutical company and the rest that would be returned to my body.  I must have looked nervous, because a man across from me asked, "First timer?" He had unkempt brownish grey hair and a long beard, his shoes and pants covered in dust and dirt.  We shared a laugh- me, thankful to have someone to emphathize with, and I briefly wondered what others would think of me donating plasma with what looked to be a homeless man.

I guess I didn't look like the typical plasma donor- if there is a "typical look," although there were several college guys filing out paperwork the same time I was. I was embarassed about halfway through my physical, when I was asked, "Do I know you?" I dread the question anywhere, and here it was doubly embarassing.  My typical response, "Do you watch Daybreak?" was greeted with a, "Yes, I knew that was you!" Some people may assume the life of a TV anchor or working in local news is glamorous. But the truth is, we clip coupons, we shop at discount stores for the best bargains like everyone else, discontinue our cable when times get tough, and at least for this girl, we sometimes go to extreme lengths like donating plasma to pay for ambitions out of our budget. 

For me, that was a desire to go to Haiti. Desire almost isn't the right word for it- hunger, thirst, maybe.  It was a trip I'd been wanting to take for years, and for different reasons, it just didn't work out. It wasn't my time.  The only way I can really describe my desire to go is that perhaps it was a calling.  "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."- Anais Nin.

Several times since I was in high school, I'd been on the verge of going to other places - Nicaragua, Niger.  It had never worked out- and probably for good reason. But this time, it would work out. This time, I would finally get to visit the orphans who had been on my mind for years.  The question for me was... how?  How would I swing this- with very limited vacation days, and virtually no resources to pay for a trip as expensive as this?

"Oh ye of little faith, why did you doubt me?"

Little did I know, God would provide everything I needed for the trip, and in bigger ways than I could have ever imagined. 

TO BE CONTINUED (will write more when I'm not falling asleep!)...

P.S. I'm using an old blog to post this... it's over four years old! So I apologize for the old posts. Perhaps they will provide some entertainment for the extremely bored :)