I arrived

Wow what a day. Amazing things indeed. A friend called to tell me her husband was going to New Orleans too. Lo and behold we were on the same flight out of Tampa. As there are no coincidences in life, Tom was truly God sent. Lori, thank you for checking your email early and for calling. :-)

Little things happened along the way that let me know angels were with me. Perhaps calling it an adventure was not the best choice of words. It is a journey and where it will take me is still unknown. I have no expectations of this trip. It will lead to where it is suppose to and the wonderful part is watching to see what will happen next. Parts of it are scary but I have faith all will work out the way it is suppose to.

On to the rest of the day.

I got alittle turned around leaving the airport but found my way to the library where we are working at. The OPR crew is terrific. They welcomed me and made me feel at home right away. I jumped right in and started doing some copy work and restoration.


This is Dave, OPR's Co-founder, and I copying photos while the two ladies wait. The photos are copied and returned to the owners. They are then sent either restored on site or sent out to volunteers who are restoring from home. When the final image is printed it will be mailed back to the owner.

In the background you can see the restoration area.

Today about 250 pictures were taken in from 40 families. One of the first I saw come in was brought by a woman whose home was "washed away". She brought in half of a picture of her mother, about 2 inch square and cracked liked dried mud and torn at the bottom. She didn't think it could be salvaged but Mike said "sure it can, that's easy." She was so happy and grateful. You could hear the emotion in her voice when she kept saying thank you.

After we finished at 9pm I followed a new friend back to the church where we are staying. In the morning I will share a picture. It's a small church that is also housing another volunteer group. Did I say we have showers? Yes, even with hot water. More on that tomorrow too.

Anyone who wants to volunteer by doing restorations from home just go to the OPR site and send Dave and Becky an email.

It's getting late and my air mattress is bottoming out. i better even out the weight. :-)

In the words of Helen Keller, "I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do."

G'nite,