Our Library in Laos

Hi everyone!

We did it! We did it! We did it!

After months of fundraising and many generous donations, we are beyond excited to announce that we finally have our library in Laos!!!!!!!!!!! We have reached our $5000 goal and are ecstatic to share the news that there is now a library in our name in the process of being built! For this, we owe all of you a massive THANK YOU!! The outpouring of support, encouragement and generosity that we've seen throughout our 'Drive to 25' is something we never imagined. We couldn't have done this without you! It's as simple as that! This is truly YOUR library as much as it is OURS!

We will keep you posted along the way, as we learn more about the actual library and it's status. The next item on our bucket list is to go and visit the library (as well as our 'little sister' Mai). Although this is definitely 'in the future', thinking about it has us pretty excited!

And now, we can check #25 off of our 'List'! This has been the most incredible journey and we couldn't think of a better way to cap off our 25th year! What a dream come true!

Together, we've always shared a birthday, but now we will always share it with the children in Laos who have been given the gift of reading! It doesn't get much better than that!

 

 

 

The Final Countdown!

Hi guys!

As we officially come to the end of our 'Drive to 25' (tear!), we thought we'd update you on our final few challenges/adventures.

If you've been following along closely, you may wonder what ever happened to the 10km run that we were so gung-ho about trying. Well, we definitely trained and tried our best, but experienced a few set backs. After running 5 kilometres rather comfortably, Melissa started suffering serious pain in her left knee. This really started impacting our training as she'd start running only 1 or 2 kilometres and then could barely continue. After seeing the doctor, she was told that physiotherapy might help, but that based on the structure of her knees, she probably would never be able to run long distances. Even though hearing those words acted as a motivator to prove the doctor wrong, she continued to suffer pain and it just wasn't worth trying to continue.

After some disappointment, we decided to be proud of our 5km running and committed to staying fit in other ways. We went snowshoeing last winter which was a blast; we did a lot of biking on scenic routes around the Ottawa River this summer; and we hope to do some cross country skiing this winter. Next spring, we plan on walking to Parliament from our apartment - a trek of just over 20 kilometres. There are clearly marked paths guiding the way, so even though it might be long, we know we can do it!!

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Another addition to our list goes back a few months when we decided to write a spontaneous 'fan' letter. Although we would never consider ourselves crazy die-hard fans of anything, as you may have seen on our 'Dream List', we have always, since we were little, loved the Vancouver Canucks. We have many a picture to prove it! And now, it seems pretty ironic that our favourite hockey team has twins as their star players.

A few months back, we decided 'what the heck!' and wrote to both Daniel and Henrik Sedin. It seemed kind of crazy and definitely not something we would typically do, but we figured 'why not?'. And, we're sure happy we did! A couple months later, unexpectingly, we received mail from the Vancouver Canucks. Having almost forgotten about our silly letter, we were shocked when we opened the envelope to find a response letter and a signed players card. How nice of them to take the time and effort to not only read but to acknowledge us! We didn't even think our letter would reach them, let alone be read, so you can imagine our surprise and excitement!

This week we look forward to cheering on our team and the Sedins as they play the Ottawa Senators here in Ottawa. GO CANUCKS GO!

Overall, we are happy we went through with sending our letter and encourage others to do the same. You never know what can happen from a simple letter. Whether it's to a celebrity, athlete, favourite teacher or friend, mail has a special way of making people's day. 

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As some of you may know, this is a big week for us! As our 26th birthday approaches and we close out our 'Drive to 25', we have only ONE more thing to complete - our Library in Laos. Stay tuned for an exciting update in the next couple of days :)