Blessings in Vietnam - one year after our trip

TOP (Tours of Peace) Vietnam Veterans goes to Vietnam every March. Hard to believe that it has been a full year since Gary and I went over with them. It was with great interest that we followed the progress of the group preparing to leave this year. They left (for their two week trip) on March 4th taking a number of items we had the privilege to help with.

• Daughter Cindy had collected and sent to the group beanie babies and ball caps for the kids. She knows from my stories last year what a hit these are and how they facilitate interaction between the participants and the kids.
• Gary had worked hard to rally support and sponsorship for the special wheelchairs that TOP has built in Vietnam out of bicycle parts (for a remarkable $110 each). I will post pictures to share the delivery of these items with you. Daughter Cindy and her family raised and contributed their own funds to sponsor one. Our group, Oregon Coast Veterans Association, sponsored 5 of them. A number of neighbors and several other friends stepped forward with checks. Gary and I gave each other wheel chair sponsorships for Christmas this past year. All in all Gary was responsible for getting 13 chairs sponsored.
• I was very slow at my leprosy bandage knitting but was able to convince a number of friends to work on them as well...including one lady (in England) who I have only met via the internet. Not sure of the final count on bandages but you will see in the pictures that there were quite a pile of them...but all very much needed.
• Based on our success at matching retrieved dogtags with the families of veterans, TOP rescued another batch of tags (about 350 as I remembered). We will now begin processing those and working to reunite our dogtag "inventory" (now nearly 1500) with their families.

Now we move forward with tenative plans for a return trip to Vietnam in March 2007. This time Gary will take daughter Cindy to this magical land of blessings. It will be my pleasure to spend two weeks of quality time with my three grandkids and son-in-law...now where did I leave those tranquilizers...and do I give them to the kids or take them myself ???