Bucket Lists

Do you have a bucket list?  Places to see, things to experience, commitments to fulfill.  My bucket list seems to grow longer every year and one of the items on it had sat dormant for far too long a time and that was lending a helping hand to Habitat for Humanity. Then there it was one Sunday a few years ago a notice in our church bulletin about a possible mission trip to New Orleans to help with the Katrina recovery. It couldn't have been any clearer what the "message" was if it had been pasted on my forehead. I was still working at the time but decided right there and then that it was time to get off the bucket and actually fulfill this dream.  I attended the church meeting, signed up and cleared the time from my calendar at work. 

So for the past three years I have gone to NOLA each spring with a wonderful group of church friends from Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.  The results have been homes for those in need and wonderful friendships with people I would otherwise never have met.  What I have received in lending a helping hand far exceeds what  I have given which is usually the case when a person volunteers. 

 

This is the home a group of us were adding the finishing touches to this year. This home will house a 29 year old mother who has put herself through college and grad school and her four children. 

Our group is large enough to be split between two homes that were under construction.  This group did both the inside and outside finish work on this home.

At the other site a couple of blocks away another eleven people from our group were digging the foundation for a new home.  They were digging by HAND the start of another person's dream.     

I arrived home in time to spend Easter with my family in the comfort of our homes knowing that my bucket list is a little lighter and next year a couple of deserving families will have Easter in their new homes.