New Dawn goes to Chicago

We are in Harlan, Indiana tonight. This afternoon we sang at Whispering Pine Nursing Home in Valparaiso, IN. The nursing homes have all been very enjoyable. The residents all seem so appreciative of us coming to sing with them. We sing some good old hymns that many of them know. It's the best when we look out and see so many of them singing along with us from memory. We usually make sure we have enough time to visit with the people as well, which has been great! They all have so many fun stories and so much life experience to share with us. It's been so cool to see my teammates interacting with the nursing home residents and seeing how big of an impact we have even in the little time we have with them. I love watching how each person on our team connects with people in a different way, making them laugh, smile and brightening their day.

Yesterday we spent our day off in Chicago. We were at a church in Mundelein, IL and we took the train to Chicago. It was about an hour and a half ride and we played Truco the whole time. Truco is a Brazilian card game that Dave learned when he was in Brazil. He taught us how to play but we are still nowhere near as good as he is. After pulling into Union Station in Chicago we went to Millenium Park and saw "the Bean." It is this huge reflective bean that distorts the shape of things and is lots of fun to take pictures of. At this point we met up with Ua (our newly added 5th team member). So he is officially with us now. After Millenium Park we walked to Navy Pier and then on to a yummy Italian restaurant, where we had a fun meal with Jamie and Matt, two of Jenny's friends that work at Deloitte in Chicago. There were lots of laughs and really good food. After stuffing ourselves, Jenny, Luke and I had to run to catch our train! Knowing us that somehow doesn't surpise me but we made it on the train and had a nice relaxing ride home while Dave and Ua drove back in Ua's Jeep. Ua's parents met us at the nursing home in Valpo to take Ua's jeep and to say goodbye. It was fun to get to meet them. We were excited when leaving the nursing home, realizing this was the first time that all 5 of us were in the van together as a team!