Climbing Juliet's Balcony on a Sprain Ankle

So far 18 climbs out of 27 are done! Five climbs were accomplished on Juliet's Balcony at Great Falls National Park in Virginia! I climbed three routes on top of the balcony and two below. Most of the climbs were crack climbing.

When I'm on top of the balcony, my husband, Sam can't see me and I need to let him know when I start climbing- basic climbing rules. Well... I made a mistake of climbing without telling him (not on purpose). I was climbing and then I fell from the mountain. I tried to land on my feet, but I ended up landing and rolling on my left ankle. My scream echoed on the mountain.

It was painful and the first thing that came to my mind was "God please heal my ankle and let it not be broken." I would hate to climb down the mountain with a broken ankle and then hike up on jagged rock clearing to get to the hiking path and hike back to the car.

I sat there for about ten minutes massaging, moving and praying over my ankle. Finally, I was able to stand on the my two feet, didn't feel much pain and told Sam, I'm going to climb again. He said ok. This time, I followed climbing rules. I said, "Climbing." Sam tighten the rope and said, "climb on."

I climbed three more routes after the incident and the last crack climb was extremely difficult. I attempted it several times and wanted to give up. If it wasn't for Sam's encouragement and believing that I could make it to the top, I wouldn't have finished it.

Towards the afternoon the mountain was starting to get hot to touch and climb, so we headed back home after Sam climbed a few routes.

It was a very successful climbing day, my body was SORE, open blisters on my hands (the biggest one was the size of a dime), and I'm alive and fine :)

My husband and I were trying to figure out why we have so many blisters on our hands and we concluded it was because the mountain was hot during the last part of our climbs.

At home, I noticed my left ankle was much bigger than my right one. It turns out I climbed three routes on a sprain ankle without realizing it. Sam made a delicious dinner and gave me a foot massage.

My son, Ox had fun with my ankle.

I am very grateful for

• God healing my ankle and not being seriously hurt
• My husband's encouragement and believing in my climbing abilities
• Sam's love- making a fantastic dinner and foot massage
• Ox- for making me laugh
• I will be able to rock climb next week

18 climbs have been accomplished so far and the human trafficking fact for 18 is an estimate of 18,000-20,000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the US each year for labor and sexual exploitation.

Source: Trafficking In Person (TIP) report in 2003

Leave your foot print in the new abolition movement and please sign up to be a Team Captain and recruit walkers for DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk on Oct 23, 2010 at the National Mall! The Team Captain who has the most walkers in September wins a 8GB iPod Touch! For more details go to walk.stopmodernslavery.org