We spent Thursday on Labadee, a Royal Caribbean owned peninsula of Haiti. The ship anchored in the harbor and passengers were tendered to and from shore. Most of the day we spent in the water. Near the end of the day we walked over to a point called Dragon's Rock, and Ritina and Taylor did some shopping in a Haitian marketplace where Taylor bought a shell necklace. It is an unbelievably beautiful place, and we all had a wonderful day. One thing that did leave a lasting impression on me is the dramatic contrast of Haiti's beauty and the extreme poverty of her native people.

I posted several pictures from the day if you're interested in having a look.

Another wonderful day! We docked early this morning on the island of St. Thomas. After breakfast, a quick check through customs, and a some local shopping, we took a tour of the island, visited a small marine park that had an underwater viewing facility that opened into the ocean, and wrapped up the day at Magen's Bay, a beautiful beach on the Caribbean side of the island.

Some wonderful people at Royal Caribbean arranged for us to have internet access in our stateroom, so I'm going to try and post a few pictures along with some brief comments of each. A great big thank you to Royal Caribbean and especially Cathy at Adventure Ocean (the youth area of the boat) for helping with the internet access! Check the photo page for the pictures comments.

Presently we're at sea, somewhere between St. Thomas and San Juan. Tomorrow in San Juan we take a four hour tour of a rain forest--this schedule that Thomas made for will have us needing a vacation from our vacation once we get home! We are all having a blast, and Thomas is just beside himself with everything. It is truly a wish come true!

Well, we made it, and what a time it's been so far! The ship is amazing and Thomas and Taylor both are having a blast. Right now it's later afternoon Monday and we're between the Bahamas, where we went ashore yesterday, and St. Thomas, where we go ashore tomorrow. Just wanted to post a quick note to let friends and family know we made it here and that we're having a wonderful trip.

Our first shore excursion, in Nassau, was a "Dolphin Encounter". I so wish that each and every one of you could have been there to see Thomas light up when he got to hug, kiss, and even dance with a dolphin! What an awesome experience it was. I'm working on getting internet connectivity to our stateroom; if I can arrange the service for less than the usual $100 per week, I'll post some pictures! Otherwsie the pictures will just have to wait until we get back.

A note to friends and family: though we can't make phone calls, we do have internet access at a relatively low cost, so if you want to send email, we'll probably be checking it once or twice.

Our deepest thanks again to Make-A-Wish for making this a reality for Thomas. Words don't begin to describe how happy he is here.

Tomorrow morning at 4:30 AM we head to New York, catch a flight to Miami, and at 5:00 PM tomorrow our boat leaves port. I should point out that this entire trip, from where we're going, the particular type of boat we'll be on, the shore excursions, everything--it was all selected by Thomas down to the last detail. Make-A-Wish made an unbelievable effort to satisfy every request he had.

Our itinerary goes like this:

July 5: Miami, Florida
July 6: Nassau, Bahamas; Close Dolphin Encounter
July 7: Day at Sea
July 8: Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Magen's Bay and Coral World
July 9: San Juan, Puerto Rico; El Yunque Rain Forest Tour
July 10: Labadee, Hispaniola; Sea Trek Floating Beach Mat
July 11: Day at Sea
July 12: Miami, Florida

Julie Dunn and Guido Tino, the two Make-A-Wish volunteers who have been working with Thomas for the last year, showed up yesterday with a Bon Voyage cake and balloons, and gifts for the boys, including beach towels, underwater cameras, and games for travel days. We can't say enough about the Make-A-Wish foundation and these two volunteers who have brought so much to our lives. Check the latest entry in the photo gallery for a picture of Julie and Guido with Thomas and Taylor, taken last night when they came to wish us Bon Voyage.

Need to go finish packing now! FYI, we learned last night that ship-to-shore phone calls are a mere $15.50 US per minute. If we don't call, it doesn't mean we don't love you . . .

Our sincerest thanks to all of our donors and team members for a successful American Cancer Society Relay for Life fundraiser. "Team Thomas" raised well over five thousand dollars for the event, and thanks to those of you who donated online, Thomas was the number one online fundraiser.

This was the first ACS Relay for Life event that I personally ever attended; it was an incredible event that had some emotional aspects I hadn't foreseen. The first lap is the "Survivor Lap." Watching Thomas walk the track, as a true survivor, all the things he overcame in the past year--the prodding and poking and testing, the chemotherapy, the loss of his right eye--all played out before me as he made the lap, bringing me tears of both pain and joy for my precious son who had to learn at far too young an age about the horror we call cancer, but who in the end, with an incredible spirit, endured and overcame. It is my prayer that I will blessed to watch him walk this lap for decades to come.

This coming Saturday we leave for our Make-A-Wish trip. For those interested I'll post more details on Friday when we have our complete itinerary, but the short version is that for the next week we'll be cruising around the Caribbean. When Thomas was granted a wish early last year, he spent a couple of weeks thinking about what he wanted. Finally, one day he said to me, "Daddy, I can't think of anything; there's nothing that I wish for." The next day we received in the mail from Make-A-Wish a set of guidelines on wish selection. It gave examples of wishes other children had made, and also listed some things that were specifically excluded, such as large piles of cash, cars, and . . . travel outside the continental United States except the Caribbean. This prompted Thomas to ask what the Caribbean was, so we googled "Caribbean" and found some pictures, and at that point Thomas knew his wish!

We can't say enough about Make-A-Wish, their goal as an organization, and the two volunteers who have been working directly with us since Thomas was granted a wish. Any organization that blesses the lives of children is something special; Make-A-Wish tops the list.