March 2017 blog 1 — Contract signing excitement, trains, and planes

Promissory contract has been signed, and down payment paid! Our meeting with the owner, estate agent, and lawyer went as well as we hoped for. And the mimosa property we fell in love with weeks ago is contracted to be ours. What the contract basically means is that the owner promises to sell the property to only us, and we promise to buy it. The seller's responsibility over the next 3 months is to conduct a “discovery” of the property with the help of a lawyer and architect. It includes things like making sure borders comply with the survey, and ensuring that we’ll be granted the planning permission from the council to build what we’d like from the existing ruin. As long as that checks out, we'll pay the remaining balance, and the deeds will be put into our name. We were thrilled with how it all went!

So we had the most exciting day in Portugal that we've had yet, and celebrated over some wine and dine before I was off to Ecuador via Boston. Rory took the train with me down to Lisbon to catch my flight. He would never turn down a good train ride.

 

Arriving in Boston that evening gave me about 13 hours to repack for Ecuador and get back to the airport. Although it was hectic and a lot of travel, it couldn't be more worth it to be here in Guayaquil as part of such an incredible team. I've been so moved and humbled by the patients, families, and fellow team members over the last 2 days working at Hospital Leon Becerra de Guayaquil during patient screening. We screened nearly 200 patients over the last 2 days, so we were busy to say the least. The rest of the week is surgeries, so it will be even busier but I'm really thrilled and honored to be a part of it. A huge thanks to the generosity of so many I exceeded my goal of raising over $2,000. That money will truly contribute to changing the lives of these lucky children treated by Global Smile Foundation.

 

The seller of our mimosa project has given permission to work on the property as much as we’d like in the meantime, and there’s plenty of clearing water mines and pathways to start. Rory will be working at that, along with designs and plans for building, and I'll be back and forth over the next 13 weeks during a contract at Boston Children's. We're so excited with how things are going, and with what's to come.

one of many mimosa drafts