Small, but significant

The whole story is rather long and complex, but I will shorthand it here a bit. After 3 years of actively trying I  finally managed to get a reservation for Philmont. It hasn't been easy and it hasn't been a smooth path. This year timing was everything and nothing seemed to be going the way we needed it in order to have a successful outing from the Stake to get to Philmont. Leadership change was our biggest problem with a change in the stake presidency causing the most difficulty. Nevertheless, we have forged ahead (myself and the stake YM president, Lyndon Smith) and acted as effectively as we could under the constraints we were given. 

We got the final authorization to go ahead with the trek a little over a week ago, but we had a payment of $100 due to Philmont by this Thursday in order to keep our reservation. We were only able to get the barest of communications out, mostly by e-mail, to try and get as many boys and leaders on board as we could. It looked like it would only be semi successful. After speaking with Pres. Smith about it we decided we needed to ask Philmont for more time if we were going to be more successful. So, today I called Philmont to plead our case. All we wanted was 2 more weeks to get the word out a little better. Philmont actually offered to give us until April 1st to get our payment in. 

This is an unbelievable blessing. We now have the time to get a little more organized and really reach out to the boys in the stake and try to get them interested in the adventure. I'm extremely grateful that we now have the opportunity to do what we have been wanting to do and get in front of boys and parents and to really talk to them about the Philmont experience.

I will post at some time in the future about how utterly beside myself with excitement I am for the blessing of being able to go there at all, but for now, I'm just ecstatic that I get the chance to share what a wonderful experience it will be for the boys (and leaders) and get as many on board as possible.