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After dropping Sarah off in Tucson we hustled to Las Cruces- fashionable late of course, to a meeting with David McNamara and Mary Helen Hilanez from the Diocese of Las Cruces. We had a lovely meeting about the Las Cruces Diocese's stand on adoption and how they had done some work on the social justice of promoting adoption in past years. They expressed both positive and not positive experiences- specifically citing the long drawn out process that accompanies adoption home studies ,criminal checks etc and the follow up by the social service agent as a drawback to adoption. They committed to doing monthly profiles of children in their paper.We agreed to assist if possible/ necessary to connect them with the information about specific children. They told us of a catholic priest,in their diocese, who has co adopted two special children and often speaks of his experiences of working with " his children" in his weekly homilies. Both David and Maryhelen talked of different families that they thought who do an excellent job of parenting children with special needs etc.. David and Maryhelen had some fabulous ideas about how they could work an adoption profile into an article about families that have adopted. They thought that by working with specific geographic areas or specific parishes within their large diocese they could both profile the adopted family and the specific region and or parish. They expressed interest in knowing more about existing faith based programs that promote adoption within the nation [ We spoke specifically of " One Church - One Child "as we discussed options} They will attempt to promote the " Heart Gallery" exhibit which is coming to Las Cruces in October. Although the details were not outlined, we feel as though David and Maryhelen were very excited. In fact, we found our conversation with David and Maryhelen delightful. Clearly, the people of Las Cruces are loving and compassionate. David and Maryhelen discussed the clear love and pride of their community.

Certain moments in life are both fabulous and frightening: Sarah attended the orientation and moved into the University of Arizona dorms. We are so proud of her for testing herself, moving outside of her comfortable home and following her dream to participate in college athletics and attend college. I guess on some level you get what you bargain for--- We tell our children to go after what they want-but why couldn't she pick Hamline or Augsburg? We would even allow her to attend St Thomas if it meant she could stay closer to home. We know this certain professor who is in the theology department who I here is an easy "A".It is said that some of his students turn delusional after they graduate. In fact there is one who has been referenced by this same professor that swears she was normal prior to her attending the University of St. Thomas.

We entered Arizona under the cover of darkness- destination a condo to take some R and R as we prepare to get Sarah to her new home at the U of Arizona - Tucson and continue on our travels to promote adoption. We enjoyed driving during the night, traveling under the dark sky sensing rocks and sand that captures Arizona. We arrived at the condo, bunked down for the day and decided that laundry needed to be done, NOW!!! We need to spend a day hearing the pleasant sound of a Matag taking care of business. About 1 PM on that day of rest, Hannah had a medical issue that needed to be dealt with at an ER - We traveled on with a Scottsdale Ambulance to the WORLD FAMOUS MAYO CLINIC- Scottsdale. Jeanne and I decided that a possible side benefit to our trip is that we could do a compare and contrast article on Emergency Departments and promptness of service.

After four hours the doctors and the tired parents now felt secure enough to take the precious Hannah to the condo. Laundry remained in need of service:but there is a perspective to be gained!!

On the project , we made multiple contacts with several different papers in Arizona and did not make the dead line so we agreed with the writer to do an article after we return to Minnesota- and discuss some of our perceptions about adoption.

IT turned out that this miscue was beneficial to the process of getting Sarah, our beautiful 19 year old daughter settled at the University of Arizona.. What an honor to be part of this transition!!!

Our Post Card Buddies have been to The Rocky Mountains,they have been to The Great Salt Lake they have been to Six Flags, they have been to The Golden Gate Bridge, the have been to The sands of Death Valley.My guess is that they enjoyed Nebraska best!!! They are truly in our thoughts as we travel across the west.

When you drive a 15 passenger van with four toppers on the roof, you stick out! When you drive a 15 passenger van with four toppers on the roof in Las Vegas - you might as well start humming the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies. So we waited 30 minutes to get across two traffic lights to turn into the World Famous Balagio Cassino so that we could see the lights, we were driving to the Valet, and Neal had a panic attack, " WHO WOULD WANT TO TRY TO PARK THIS THING ? and IF THEY TRY TO PARK THIS THING, WILL THERE BE ENOUGH ROOM FOR THEM TO SIT DOWN WITHOUT HALF OF THE VAN CONTENTS FALLING ON THEM?" What a decision- but now we are in traffic and turning that 15 passenger van is not like turning the Cooper that I drive in my dreams!

HERE WE GO!!

We were struck by how many different languages that we heard, French, Spanish , Middle Eastern etc.... at one point Jeanne stated that she heard 8 different languages . She stated that Italian was her favorite!! WE were all captivated by the water show at the Balagio, we attempted to take pictures of our Buddies facing several of the famous Casinos.

Jenna attempted to take a slide show that we will attempt to link.

We are currently in Arizona and we are having some issues with our internet connections. We will be attempting to update more frequently when we get to a hotel with easier access.

Peace to all!!

Neal and Jeanne