Happy Birthday Mom!

What do you give the woman that has everything?

Bravery, strength, tenacity, courage, an independent spirit, willpower and determination beyond most people, an unbelievable capacity to love others and expect nothing in return, and an ability to hear the voice of the Lord guiding her in her interactions with this world. These are my mothers personality traits. With traits such as these, what more could a person desire?

Mom,

We've been together for 30 years now. One year shy of half of your life. It has been a nice journey filled with so many highs and lows, times of sorrow and times of joy. It has been a great pleasure to be your companion on this journey of life as watching you learn and grow has brought about the same within myself. You have been a fine example of how to love what is in life no matter what circumstances arise. You have always found a way to live with grace. For that you should be so proud.

So does all of this mean that life was perfect, without flaw or blemish? Ha! I think we both know the answer to that question. You and I have had quite the coming together, growing apart and then back together experience, and I am happy for every moment of that. The long hugs, the wiping away of tears, the laughter, the life lessons, the throwing things at one another, the mean words exchanged, the attempt to write you off for eternity, and then finally realizing that there are both wants and needs in life. You have always given me what I have needed, even when it has been the opposite of what I have wanted. That is called a spirit of service, because we both know that I have been blessed with your tenacity, independence, and willpower. You knew every time what crossing me would bring, and yet you did it anyway... That is love in its' truest sense. I am so proud of you mom.

So what can I give the woman who has everything? I think that the answer is simple. Just give back what has been received:

Unconditional love

So greatful to you Mom for everything you have done.

Happy birthday,

Matt D

The Beautiful Aftermath Pt. 1

The Great Valentines Day Snow Storm of 2007

We have taken on a good heaping of snow today. I think we are in the 15" - 20" range at this point, and things are expected to continue on into the late evening. As a southern boy I am still pretty taken by this sort of thing. It is really quite beautiful. Below are some photos taken on a brief tour of the campus once the snow stops falling, and we venture out for some fun and will post more photos very soon.

Newly Added Video of the Storm:

Himalayan Institute - Through my father's eyes

My Dad came up for a visit, and we had a great time. He is going to be away from home for the next 5 weeks, so he asked me to save the photos from his camera to a disk. Here are the unedited, raw, uncensored photos from the past few days. If you mouse over them you will find some poor descriptions of what the photos are supposed to be. I think the concept of this post is cool, because these are all photos that someone who does not live on campus found interesting. That may mean that some of our readers might agree?

It was nice to see my Pops. I am hoping that Briana and I can make a trip down to Philly to see him while he is still nearby. Philly is only 3 hours away, So I think we should take advantage of this as much as possible.

Photos from Niagara Falls

After a long search on the web for some seats that we could install in the cargo van that was donated to the Cameroonian project, we hit pay dirt in Buffalo, NY. I found a gentleman who is in the business of converting stock vans into handicap accessible customized vans, and he had just the right components for our van to be properly and safely converted.

So a gentleman named Jake that works for me and I made the 5 hour trip up to Buffalo, NY about 10 days ago to retrieve the seats and brackets. While we were there we decided that it would be sacrilege to be so close to a wonder of the world and not set eyes upon it, so we made the 23 minute journey north into Canada to view the falls from the "pretty" side.

Going to Canada was a mistake, as apparently it is not wise to visit there if you have an unusual employment situation. Both Jake and I are humanitarian volunteers. We do not take a salary for the work that we do, and that just does not stand up to any logic at the border between two nations apparently. (I think that they are frightened that we were looking for free health care?) So after being detained for about an hour, and an extensive background check, we were permitted to enter the country. It was too long to wait, but the falls were impressive. It was cold, and damp, so we did not spend much time admiring the beauty of it all, but I definitely know that I want to return in the summer with Briana to walk the entire park.

The drive home was very scary, as some of that record snowfall began to roll in, and we saw many cars run off of the road. I really got broken in to driving on snow covered roads, and it took almost twice as long to get home as it did to get to Buffalo! I was so tired, but also glad to have arrived home without incident.