Blog? What blog?

My life is such a crazy list of to-do's that I've hardly given blogging a thought lately...

Life continues to bring us an amazing array of opportunities to be thankful... from things like successful school years for all three kids to work going extremely well to God's provision for our trip... it's all good.

One more short morning of school for the kids and I will be the parent of a sixth grader, a freshman and a junior. Honestly? I can't believe it.

And in two weeks and two days, we leave for our trip.

I have so many things that have gone by the wayside in our preparations... from blogging to creative pursuits, to (unfortunately, lately) running... I'm still getting in my ten miles a week, but I've not really been 'training' at all.

So my list of things I'm hoping to pursue on our return is long.

Long - but definitely set aside for now.

As I've worked toward all the crazy details of taking a family of five to Africa, I've struggled with feeling overwhelmed... it's my tendency to get caught up in details and often I lost sight of the big picutre.

Asia (God bless him for his patience with me) said the other day "It doesn't seem like you're enjoying any of this. This is a dream come true for you and you're making it a nightmare."

Ouch. Oh how the truth hurts sometimes.

So I've taken a step back... and vow to live in each moment. To cherish all the details. To not stress out about things.

Heck, I never even got my luggage last time I went and I survived just fine.

I think probably manage if I forget to bring something.

We had a good long 'family meeting' last night to talk through the trip. We gave the kids a chance to express what they're most excited about and what they might have anxiety about or be nervous about.

Good stuff. It gave Asia and I just the tiniest glimpse of what an amazing opportunity this is to impact their world view...

Already they were asking things like "Why is Africa so far behind the Unites States in things like technology and medicine? They're just like us... why don't they have the same things we do? Their civilization is older than ours..." which gave us the opportunity to talk about why we tend to think our way is better... and challenge them to consider whether we're any happier with all our technology etc... What a great chance we should have to dialogue as we embark on this journey together.

So yeah - lots of stuff on my brain lately... lots of details and ideas and hopes and concerns and a little teeny bit of anxiety...

And not so much blogging.

But I'm still here.

And I'll be back.