Meet Mera.

If you know anything about me at all, you know that I LOVE Honduras. I love the people, I love the food, I love my school there, I love the beaches, I love the mountains. I love it all. I also really love my students. And while I haven't been their teacher in a year, they will always be my students. Always my Grade 2's or Grade 1's.

Each one of them is crazy and wild and funny and awesome. I could tell you so many funny stories about each and every one of them. But today is all about one wild little girl. One wild little girl who was my student for only a year, but who changed my life in more ways than she could ever understand.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mera.

She just finished Grade 2, and like I said, she's wild. She's energetic and she's stubborn. She's funny and she's loving. She's girly and she's a tomboy. She loves me to death and wants nothing to do with me.

She also needs surgery ASAP.

Mera currently has a whole collection of kidney stones that are causing her a lot of pain and not allowing her body to work properly. She will need a procedure called a lithotripsy which is when kidney stones are broken down (usually through ultrasound shock waves) that can then be passed through the body.

The only place in Honduras where this surgery can be performed with proper pediatric equipment is in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, located approximately 2 hours away from Sigua. The approximate cost is about $3000, as well as about $3000 for follow up procedures and a second lithotripsy.

This is where you come in.

$3000 is a pretty substantial amount of money. Especially for Honduras. (As a reference, I was making about $300 a month while working there. That was enough for me to be considered wealthy.)

Will you please consider donating money to help Mera with her surgery? It's as easy as skipping that Starbucks coffee for a day. Or not buying that pair of pants that you have to have don't really need online. (Trust me, this is a feeling I know well right now.)

If you are feeling led to help financially, money can be mailed to me in the States and I will get the money to Mera and her tías (aunts). We can also work out a way to transfer money through PayPal, if that is easier for you. You can also donate through this fundraising website: Mera's Lithotripsy. Heck, I will travel to you to pick up the money, if that's what needs to be done.

Also, will you please keep Mera and her tías in your prayers? Mera is one of the bravest (and most stubborn) people that I know. When talking to her tía about the upcoming procedure, she said that the other night Mera was inconsolably crying in her arms-- a mixture of pain and fear. For Mera to show such strong emotion this way, she must really be in pain and very anxious. She needs our prayers!

Thank you in advance for all of your help. I cannot tell you how much it means to me, to Mera, and to her tías.