Last post from the States for a bit...

Here we go! The time has finally arrived to head off into the wild blue! Though it still seems an impossibly long way away (tomorrow afternoon), some things have hit home to me tonight as I've zipped up our bags for the final time before departing. After tomorrow morning:

• When the wheels stop turning on our last flight (Tues afternoon)...we will be 5989 miles from where we started
• The next time I lay down my head on a real pillow...will be in Kiev
• The next edition of the morning paper...will be in a foreign language I cannot read
• The next time we sit down for a real meal (airline food doesn't count!)...will be unfamiliar food
• The next post made to our blog...will be from a Cyrillic keyboard (not sure how that will work!)
• The next time we watch the sunset...will be over the Dnieper (Днiпро) river
• The next time we walk in our front door...we will have left 1/4 of our family in Ukraine

Pretty amazing and sobering thoughts, eh? People keep telling us we should be more stressed out than we are, but I just smile politely at them, remember Luther and think, "My dear soul, journey on in joy!" Amen.