The First of Many...

Well, the time for our departure is quickly approaching.  We will leave all that we know and love here and head off on the adventure of a lifetime, for a lifetime.  Today is Monday and our flight leaves Thursday evening.  For the most part, we have what few belongings we have left sorted into what is going, what is staying and what will probably not fit so hopefully someone will bring it out to us when they come visit.  We are filled with so many different emotions at the prospect of leaving.  Andrew's brother and sister-in-law have been in Georgia for the weekend spending time with us.  This afternoon we had the first of many hard good-byes.  We are so grateful for this time to spend with family before we leave.  It is so very difficult to say good-bye to loved ones, we have to constantly remind ourselves that it is all worth it in His name.  Andrew's parents have flown out to spend our last week here with us.  I am so grateful that they made the trip out.  It is an enormous encouragement to both me and Drew to have their love and support.  In the midst of this difficult time, it gives us such a peace and calm knowing that both sets of parents and families completely love us and support us.  Most importantly though, they know, love and desire Glory for the Name that is above all names.

We still have a lot of preparation ahead of us before we leave on Thursday.  While we have most of our things sorted, we have not even begun to put those things into bags yet.  I believe we will get to take a total of seven bags with us when we go.  It sounds like a lot, but I'm sure once we start actually putting our stuff in them they will quickly fill up.  I am a bad packer.  It's not that I am bad at getting things to fit (I think I'm actually quite good at Tetris), it's that the packing part is where I get the most stressed out.  There's just something about putting your things in a suitcase that makes it all so real.  You have to sit there and watch it all go in.  More and more of your stuff going into the suitcase and less and less of your stuff sitting on the floor in your house.  I am definitely going to need a lot of "morals" for this packing process.

Thanks for keeping up with us!  I will try to keep you updated with our process and travels as we go along.  I apologize that in my stress I often do not communicate as much as I should :)