Almost Time to Depart!

I thought I would just post once more before we depart tomorrow evening.  

First, we are excited to say that we have not only reached, but exceeded our fundraising support goal of $4,000.  Thanks to the amazing generosity of friends and family, our current total is $4,900! Words cannot express the deep gratitude from our entire family for all of your incredible support.  In addition to financially, we have been so humbled by the countless ways we have felt your support in these last 11 months of planning.  We could not have done it without each and every one of you.  

In these last few days, there are countless thoughts and emotions running through each of our minds, but something I wanted to do was to just think about the Top 5 things I think I will miss and at the same time, Top 5 things that I am looking forward to.  I thought it would be interesting to look at these when we return and see how things turned out in reality.  I decided I would just write them down today and then dismiss them from my mind as we had some good advice in our last Skype call with Cody from Come Let's Dance who will be meeting us at the airport in Entebbe.  He said not to be nervous, that we are going to love it, and to just throw all of our expectations out the window.  So, because I am a thinker and a planner, here are my last thoughts of what I "expect" will be the case and I look forward in just a couple of days to living the journey and experiencing what actually is.  

Top 5 Things I Will Miss
1.  My family who I love more than anything in this world (including Tally)
2.  My girlfriends who are always there for me
3.  Knowing my daily purpose and routine
4.  Cleanliness (my kids will say this is definitely true, along with anyone else who really knows me, as I wholeheartedly support the philosophy that "cleanliness is next to Godliness"
5.  The confidence and easiness of knowing how to accomplish what I want to accomplish

Top 5 Things I am Looking Forward To
1. Seeing a part of the world I have never been to and experiencing and learning from a new culture
2.  Getting away from the busyness and all the little details of our life as we know it and not knowing what each day will bring (ironically the opposite to #3 above that I will miss)
3.  A year of quality time with my family and us all becoming closer and stronger for it before our children's lives get even more busy and they grow up and move away
4.  A new perspective on how to view the world in which we live and an opportunity to live out my faith that has called me here in the first place
5.  Meeting new friends that I can continue a relationship with throughout my lifetime

Thanks to all of you from the bottom of our hearts.  We know your love and support will continue over these next 10 months and our biggest request is that you keep in touch and send us stories as well.  It makes it much easier to leave knowing all the loving family, friends and community that will be with us on our journey and here for us when we return.  We are going to try and post regularly, but if you have questions we're not addressing, please send them to us!   We'd love to try to answer them, or at least our perspective on them.  

All our love, and our next post will be from Africa!  Let the journey begin.

~Heather