music and gratitude

I love my family. I am currently sitting in my room near the clinic trying to get away a bit from my work today. Each day is so difficult, especially since we're going to start getting patients for the rehab center TOMORROW!!! So, in order to kind of escape, I opened my door to get some wonderful wind into my room, and put in a CD I hadn't listened to before. The day before I left for Haiti, I got to stop by my dad's house and he gave me a CD of songs he had written, from 1975 to 2010...35 years of music, that's amazing. Today was the first day I had enough common sense to know that I needed a break and I needed to hear the voice of some family member. The first song on the CD was my absolute favorite, one that my dad wrote and performed back in the Cat Stevens era. Margo's Music Box. And with the distortion from the record-to-CD transfer, it makes me imagine sitting in a field, dancing around barefoot. Completely brought me back to Oregon, something which I really needed, to get re-centered. Thank you dad.

I had a frustrating last few days, the doctors are getting worried about me and my stress level, but it will subside once patients start coming for rehabilitation and there will be more personnel to take over a lot of the work that I'm doing now. But they look out for me, they're my family here now, my protectors and saviors from time to time. If not for them, I think I would have abandoned this project and returned to the States a few weeks ago. Thank you Julio, Natalia, Paloma, and Alejandro.

Looking over the past blog posts, I noticed there were some comments I hadn't seen yet. One from my mom that was a fantastic pick-me-up. Two from my brother, who I miss terribly and that reminded me that I have the best and kookiest brother. My step-mom has also been writing to me with lots of encouraging words which have not gone unnoticed, they are appreciated and taken to heart. My dad sent me an email today with pictures form my nephew's birthday party...my stupendous brother made him a skateboard. It's true that I miss my family...I don't know if I will be able to last for the next 6 months without seeing them, but I'll do my best. For now, I appreciate all they are doing for me and for not forgetting about me. Thank you family!

And I know there are so many more people who have kept up on praying for me and sending me messages and such...Grandma and Grandpa Butler, the entire Fultz tribe, all the Butler girls and progeny, Allison, Erin, Charlie, Dan, Anali, Jojo, Dominique, Jennie, Gennie, Gracie...I love you all and I appreciate you more than you know.

Such a sappy blog post. I apologize for neglecting the tragic Haitian life, but maybe in the next entry, I will tone down the mushy stuff.