“Always Be Prepared”-is a great motto I learned from working with the youth in the Boy Scouts of America organization. And I can attest it is so true, especially when traveling.

Last week I was out of the country with my family staying at a hotel for vacation. I brought my work-out clothes, shoes, ipod, and everything needed to have a great workout…that is, until I went to the hotel’s gym and realized it was not really equipped. There was a treadmill, but no stationary bike, nothing for me to do proper training. I usually call ahead to the hotels I stay to be sure they have training equipment, and although this hotel claimed to have a gym, it was not all that ‘sufficient’. It was no problem though, because I was prepared with my running shoes. The open road can be your gym, remember that when traveling, because sometimes even though YOU might be prepared, the place you stay may not be.

I just got back from a wonderful trip and experience in Chonburi, Thailand. We were there for the Operation Smiles mission to Chonburi, an originally unplanned mission, but then was able to be executed because of XANGO. With the civil and political unrest in Bangkok less than 100 miles away, you might think we would postpone a trip like this. But it’s now more than ever that this kind of work needs to be done. In the midst of all of the suffering taking place in the capital, XanGo and Operation Smile hope to lead the movement to begin healing Thailand.

Too many kids need our help right now to postpone our good intentions. That’s the spirit XanGo has embraced since we opened our doors, and you can count on many more goodwill missions like this one in our bright future. The type of tender love shown by a mother as she cradles her child in her arms—a very common scene in the pre-op area. This love is best understood by the look both in the eyes of the parent and the child. One of love, hope, trust and gratitude. The love that they feel is the empowering emotion that allows these children to be brave in the unknown circumstances of an operation.

The experience was especially important to me because I was able to take my son with me on the trip. Even more significant was the fact that Cayden (my son)  prepared over 100 blankets to give to the kids here for his Eagle Scout Project for Boy Scouts of America. It was amazing to watch him give these blankets as a labor of love, to children and people so grateful and appreciative for the love and compassion from a complete stranger.

We were blessed to enter the operating room for several operations. What a miracle it is to see the transformation of a face. We were allowed to witness additional operations of burn victims as well. I saw a girl’s hand that was so distorted from a burn she could not open her fist. The surgeons were able to operate in such a way that her hands would open again, giving mobility where it hadn’t been at the start of this very day. Another child had a baseball-size tumor removed from her arm. Yet another had a nose and palate restructured by taking cartilage from the ear, and it was done with such precision that no one will ever be able to notice. Transformation is what these Operation Smile missions are all about: Starting the day off with a malformation and going to sleep with hope for a new life.