Kinsey is on her way to Brazil — we hope.
When the opportunity came up to participate in the humanitarian service mission to Brazil — she’ll be helping with the construction of a group home for abandoned and neglected street children of Rio de Janeiro — we let her sweet talk us into letting her go. She just had to do her fair share of working and earning money to help pay for the trip.
We agreed thinking this was not just a chance to travel and see a new part of the world, but an opportunity to truly serve other people, to learn, to grow and become a better person.
Monday morning, I dropped the budding supermodel and international superstar off at the airport where she was so eager to run down the airport to catch her plane she had to be reminded by one of the security people to give me a hug good bye.
So, with a few others in her travel party as company, Kinsey was off to Dallas, then Miami — where the entire 20-plus person crew was gathering — then Brazil. In Brazil, Kinsey is scheduled for two weeks of working, visiting and a little sightseeing before returning to Utah on August 11.
That was the schedule. The airlines had other ideas.
For whatever reason airlines have delayed flights, Kinsey’s connecting flight from Dallas to Miami was delayed and because of that she got to Miami a little late — too late, apparently, to get a boarding pass for flight to Sao Paulo. The flight, it seems, was overbooked — another stupid customer service trick airlines like to play — and six of the service mission party (including the mother of one of the kids, whew!) was going to have to stay in Miami for a night.
At least that’s what we were told at about 9 p.m. last night.
We haven’t heard a peep since and hope she’s still safe and sound.
There was one other flight leaving Miami for Sao Paulo later in the evening — like at 11 p.m. — so there is a chance her standby group was able to squeeze onto that plane. If not, she probably got an airline-paid night at a Miami Hotel with meals paid for. Not the ideal situation, but better than sitting around an airport for 24 hours wondering what was going to happen next.
As for her trip to Brazil; the group was going to start with a two-day jaunt to Iguassu Falls on the Brazil/Argentina border before getting down and dirty with manual labor at the group home. She’ll miss that.
Well, at least that’s what we were told last night.
Gotta love her spirit, her heart and everything else about her. I hope she made it to Brazil and that she has a great time and especially that she learns how some of the rest of the world live. Not that she isn’t appreciative already, but a little while in some of the less developed areas of the world will give her an increased perpective. And Iguazu Falls on top of that. That has always been one place high on my list of places I’d love to see and probably never will. We’ll keep the sweetheart in our prayers.
Love you all and always,
Grandpa Bart
What a wonderful experience she will have, lucky girl. You
and Shana are great parents. You teach them what is
important and to appreciate what they have. This is
something she will remember the rest of her life. We’ll keep
her in our prayers. We’ ll be glad to see her pictures when
she gets back. She’s a great young woman. We love her
very much. Love to all of you. Hope Emily’s arm is doing good.
Love Grandma Iris
That will be a great experience for her! I am excited for her. I hope she made it safe and sound.
What a great experience, we will have to have you/her up for dinner one night and have her tell us all about it. What a good example for all of us.