12 days 'til Takeoff

I'm sitting in a Florida condo alongside a beautiful white sandy beach, where the sun is hot and the weather is humid. I just finished a morning run, and in a few minutes, my two sisters, brother-in-law, and I will head to the beach to relax all day. We'll read books, play football in the water, and try to all jump on one floating raft at the same time, usually with no success. Here, there's not a care in the world. We sit on the beach all day and the biggest concerns we have are whether we have enough sunscreen on and whether we're going to get stung by the hundreds of jelly fish we see in the water.

Twelve days from now, on Monday August 3rd, at 6:50PM, all of that will change. I'll be leaving Indianapolis, flying to Chicago, then to London, where I have a nine hour layover, and then finally flying to Uganda, where I'll arrive at 7:45am Wednesday morning. And with that, the next chapter of my life, the next incredible journey, will begin. I'm nervous, of course, but very excited, and I know the Lord is there before me, and will be with me all along the way.

We return home late Saturday evening, and then I'll have one week until I leave, and will continue to check items off the to-do list and eventually figure out how to pack a year of my life into two 50 lb suitcases, and then I will leave, and this new journey of life will begin full force. And I'm ready. Four separate lessons each day, none of which have been planned yet, moving to a new country, meeting new people, starting a new job....I'm ready. Nervous? Yes. Excited? Absolutely. Confident in the Lord's provision? I wouldn't be able to go if I wasn't. 12 days from now, everything changes, and I am ready.