Wow, this team took a while to assemble.  378 bloggers asked to go on the upcoming Dominican Republic trip by submitting their info through CompassionBloggers.com.  Then I sought out another three dozen bloggers I’m a big fan of who had no idea Compassion Bloggers even existed.  Then, almost every day, friends (thanks Shannon, Sophie and Anne) and folks from Compassion‘s IT department (thanks, Tom) sent me blogs to check out.  It’s a wonder my eyeballs aren’t bleeding – That’s a lot of blogs to read.

Thank you to everyone who asked to go on this trip, returned my e-mails and phone calls when I asked them to go, and forwarded me the URLs of people they wanted to see go.  There’s no way I could have put this together without major amounts of your help.

Even with all the help, this team was ridiculously difficult to assemble.  You see, apparently, there’s this thing called a presidential election going on the week of our Dominican Republic trip, so bloggers at all interested in politics said “no.” Then there’s the fear factor – most people I invited said “no” because they or their spouse were afraid: Afraid to leave kids, to work with strangers, to travel, to eat in a third world country, to spend a week blogging about one thing, to travel, to partner with an organization they don’t know well, to travel.  Add to all this that bloggers, who tend to be very driven and sometimes have day jobs, often said it would be hard/impossible for them to take a week “off” to travel.

In spite of all these obstacles, here’s the team you and I put together…together.  And it is bordering on miraculous, folks.  Truly.

Melanie from TheBigMamaBlog.com.  Melanie is BooMama with less-comfortable shoes.

Mary from OwlHaven.net.  Mary is Francis of Assisi with with ovaries and 10 kids.

Tim (and his son) from Challies.com Tim is a Canadian web designer/author/theologian who doesn’t mind being gone during the election.

Marlboro Man (and his two daughters) from ThePioneerWoman.com.  Marlboro Man is a rancher from Oklahoma who stole his wife from the city life – and for that he’s repaid by having pictures of his butt featured on her very popular blog on a regular basis.  Pray for him. Or her?

Jennifer from 5MinutesForMom.com.  Jennifer was the first to sign on and is my cheerleader in the group, checking in regularly to see how the team is coming along, constantly encouraging me.

Brian and I will co-leader the trip and there’s talk of me – wait for it – Twittering as well as blogging this time around too.  I know.  I’m as shocked by that as you are.

There are a couple more possible last-minute additions I’m working on, but these five are for sure coming with us to the Dominican Republic November 2-7.  If you’d like to help us make this trip a lot more successful, please 1)pray for us starting right now, 2)link to all of these blogs from your blog 3)drop by their space and say something welcome-ish and congratulatory.

Thanks again to everybody who put this team together.  And to the team itself – thanks for saying “yes.”