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The WiFi was very unreliable the last few days and I was unable to post.  Luke and I arrived safely home last night.  I will be uploading the rest of our pictures and posting daily to catch everyone up.  Thanks for all the understanding and as always ALL the support.  The experience was AMAZING!

Riots

All is well.  For anyone watching the news...
There have been  some riots in the streets and the police force has visibly doubled since we first arrived in Madrid.  We have been no where near them at the time.  We are all safe thus far. We have had some teens ill with fever and some vomiting.  Luke was down for a day but is okay.  Several others have had some similar symptoms.  Please continue to pray for us as we make our way to the Papal site Saturday.  God Bless you all.

Quick update

Just a  quick "hello" and picture update.  We have been in Madrid for 2 days now.  Tonight Pope Benedict XVI arrived to probably between 1-2 million people.  We attended the main event.  He greeted us in several languages.  More to follow...

Re: Lack of time.

Sorry this post is later than I expected.  We are running form event to event in the hot, hot sun each day.  This make for late nights and straight to bed.  We had a slight reprieve tonight by going to early events.  Some of the teens are wiped!  We are now in Madrid and all is well. Last night we attended the Welcoming Mass to the Arch Bishop  of Madrid.  There had to be close to, if not over, 1 million people there.  The streets were packed!    The energy was AWESOME!  Loading picture and will post asap.  Love to you all.

Grotto in Lourdes, France

We spent 1 & 1/2 days in Lourdes, France. Amazing!! Both Luke and I were able to do the Bathes there. What an amazing experence. Mary is in the place where she appeared to St. Bernadette. We attended the English speaking mass there on Saturday morning. WOW! is all I can say.

Barcelona

2am here in Lourdes, France.  Only arrived at midnight.  These are pictures from the Basilica in Barcelona. We had Mass i the Crypt.
More comments to follow tomorrow.

Hancock Airport and Away

Luke waits to board airplane for the first time. Or, is he just bored? . Mark and Nana brought us and we arrived here at 12pm. We have said our goodbyes and our flight to JFK leaves at 2:37pm. He may be bored? Most of the group is here. I had my bag searched at security. One on the t-shirts I packed has glitter in the material and it set off the scanner. Word to the wise...pack that type of shirt in the checked bag. lol

Let's Go!

Thank you everyone!  We are soon on our way.  Thought we would leave you with a very colorful THANK YOU!  Hope to be Blogging soon from Spain!

Almost there!

Phew!  One more day of work and off we go!  Please continue to pray for all of us as we travel.  Also, please pray for Mark and Rachel.  They will be holding down the fort while we are gone.  Rachel will be very busy getting last minute things done for college.  Mark will be making sure she's getting ready as well as working.  Lots to do as always.

Luke and I spoke at St. Mary's 8am mass today just like we did at St. Anthony's last weekend.  We saw a lot of friendly faces and were given lots of well wishes.  Thank you.

We have been busy doing laundry for most of today and have starting to pack.   Almost done!  We are both getting excited to be air bound in 2 days (less than 48 hrs).

God Bless :)

1 Down...3 to Go

Work done for today. Now onto REST, PACK, WORK and GO!!

4 days!

Work, Rest, Pack, Work and GO!!  Things are coming together.  Luke and I are wrapping things up around the house for Mark and Rachel.  We have started putting things we are taking in one place.  Going to try to pack on Sunday.  That way there will not be as much for me to do Monday night after work.  Luke can pack during the day if need be.  We received a call from Bob Walters, the Director of Youth Ministry, and we will need to connect with him over the weekend for the shirts the Diocese provided for us.  We will post a pic of them as soon as we can.  They will be worn as we pilgrimage into the Papal site on Saturday Aug. 20th.
Updates soon :)

Followers

Thank you so much for following my Blog!!  I love to check to see if new people are "following"!  It's exciting to see others taking an interest!

1 Week and Packing

Wow!  It is hard to believe that Luke and I will be at in the air exactly 1 week from today!  We are getting excited to go!! I thought I would be very conservative in the packing?  Right??  The mom in me just can not seem to leave things behind.  Like the extra toothbrush for the teen that will leave theirs at home or the first aid kit (the director, Bob Walters does carry one) that I pray will not be needed.  Oh boy!  Good thing Luke is a light packer because he will have the room and extra weight left for me to put a few things in his bag.