Taj Mahal

Our job is to gently remove a front porch and replace it with a new one. We are also assigned to finish a floor in their house as well as put the finishing touches on the ceiling. Jack, Jon and Chelsea gently deconstructed the old porch and almost finished rebuilding the new porch by the second day. Erin and Kaelin have completed the wood floor and painted the ceiling also in the two day period. Kathleen and Laura played with the young children of our family. Kathleen and Austen, who is 4 years old collected crickets and other bugs. Laura taught Desiree to pump on a swing and chased her around the house trying to keep her out of the work zone and out of the hair of our family's mother Rachel. She has recently been troubled by back issues and is an extreme amount of pain. Our group has also had the pleasure to meet Rachel's parents, who visited and took the whole family to their house up the road so the children could go swimming and Rachel could rest. Marlin, Rachel's brother has been to the house helping Rachel with caring for her family and helping our group as well.

Laura Shreve, Jack Guild, Kathleen Mulvihill, Chelsea Sebastian, Erin Cascio, Jon Adams, Kaelin Jennison

This experience has been amazing so far. Our family has been great, the children are absolutely adorable, the dogs on our site are cute as ever, and we are getting so much work done in just two days. Each year is different, but there is something about this year that I can't put into words. On the end of the day on Monday night, I was happier than ever. Everything was falling into place and I was so excited. I always look forward to ASP, and there are a lot of changes this year but I have had a smile on my face ever since we left Saturday morning. We are all like a family here, and it feels great to have so many people that are all here because we love what we come here to do. It really is a life changing experience. This will be my sixth year coming on ASP and it has changed me as a person. There is no better feeling than knowing you are making a difference in somebody else's life. We had our prayer walk today and I also try to reflect on not just what I'm doing, but my life as a whole. I came with a smile on my face, and it has not gone away. I'm ending this with love and a hug because my reflection today really made me appreciate life and what we are here doing. I haven't sat down and thought about a lot of things for a long time, but getting a chance to walk around every station made me open my eyes even more to what I am grateful for. I am here for a reason, and I'm thankful for the opportunity.

Chelsea Sebastian