The June 2011 trip was the official “makeup” trip for the July 2010.  It was a really cool thing to be back in Monterrey at almost exactly the year mark since the hurricane devastated Monterrey.

Being the makeup trip, I was there with all but 2 of the Riv guys that I worked with on the relief trip.  So we had the opportunity to have the experience without all of the raw emotion of people losing their homes and such, more opportunity to focus on the kids.  By this time I’d pretty well gotten used to what it was all about.  One of the neatest experiences was to see my peer get immersed in what the trip was all about.  Every night when the group would get together to debrief from the day, story after story spoke to how the experiences of the day have impacted everyone.

I really struggled with being back in Mexico without Diana though.  This was the makeup trip for the trip we were “supposed” to be on together.  Not getting to share the trip with her was very taxing on me…  But that was all just a piece of what God was working on in me.  On Wednesday night a B2B staffer and good friend, Gabo, pulled me aside and spoke with me about a couple of quick things, some challenges for me to consider, and to let me know that he had arranged for my sponsor kid to come up and see me.  I was floored.  That is a 6 hour drive, not exactly a quick jump across town.  I was able to spend a couple hours the next day introducing her to all of my friends who had heard all about her from my February trip.  We stepped into an office where I pulled out my cell phone and called Diana so she could talk to her.  The funny part about that was the office we went to was also where B2B was signing up some of my friends to be sponsors for kids they had met throughout the week…  Diana was a little emotional on the phone, which prompted many of them to be emotional as well

It was a super cool thing to be an example of what Back2Back is all about in their sponsorships.  They want people think of their sponsors as members of their own family, send photos, and do the best they can to make the child a part of your life.  And if I haven’t had a chance to tell you all about our sponsor child, then by all means give me a shout and I’ll tell you all about this amazing little girl who’s stolen a piece of Diana and I.

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This is a video my buddy Jim made compiling some of our photos from the trip