10 Hours until Departure

Well, it's 10:19pm on Saturday night, and we're up at 4:50am tomorrow morning to start our adventure. We'll be driving to my parent's house, where they'll trek us to Detroit for our 9am flight.

It's been a deliciously stress-free day (thanks to my anal-retentive organizational skills - lists, glorious lists!). We've been so blessed today!! God is good :)

We're gearing up for a 19 hour flight - and I'm so excited I'm practically delirious. I should note that this excitement is actually about the flight itself. Yes, all 19 hours of it. I love flying - and I adore being a captive audience to never-seem-to-have-time-to-read-it books, and indulging in 'family friendly' movie after movie. It's forced relaxation and vegging. And it is good!

I realized this evening why it still hasn't hit me that we're flying across the world to hang out with friends and family and travel the stunning countries of South Africa and Namibia. You'd think I'd be bouncing off the walls with excitement, right? Well, we've almost been in a daze - somewhat going through the motions, but not fully comprehending what we're about to experience. So here's my revelation: in the same way a computer - when overloaded with too many requests, tasks or programs, just shuts down or freezes...every time I think about the many, many incredible dimensions of this trip - it's so good to be true, at the same time it's incredible overwhelming to even think about - unfathomable, is a good word - that my mind just shuts down and I move on with the next thought. So, in essence, the enormity of this upcoming trip is too big for my little mind to comprehend. It is so far beyond what I had thought would be possible for Joe and I to experience this early in our marriage - a whole month, enjoying family and friends, each other, the scenery, and just traveling together, which we love to do. Indeed, our God is good!

I'm sure that tomorrow morning, hundreds of pounds of luggage in hand, hearing all the airport sounds...smelling all the airport smells (I'm not sure whether this is a good thing)...it will finally start to sink in. And we will blissfully fly across the Atlantic ocean allowing the magnificence of this long-awaited journey to start percolating. Hmm...I can't wait.

Onto Africa!