"Leavin' on a jet plane..."

The countdown continues. Four days from now we'll be on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

Suitcases are (mostly) packed. There are the last minute clothes and toiletries to throw in, but for all intents and purposes, it's done. I'm still not going to share how many suitcases we ended up with, since I'm still embarrassed by the number. Let's just say I did my best, and with Ivan's help in tracking down more (and more) larger pieces of luggage, I was able to consolidate a number of smaller ones.

Today I caught up on some paperwork. Since the packing is done I typed up a master list of what's in each suitcase. I also finished inputting (is that a real word?) contact info from people who signed up to get our newsletter. I hadn't had a chance to do that in a couple months so we had sign-up sheets from a number of churches we visited during that time.

My follow-up appointment with the surgeon was this morning. We spent maybe five minutes talking about the biopsy and results, and then twenty minutes about missions. I just love that my doctor has been on several overseas mission trips (including the same place in Africa where we lived for a year). Maybe he'll come visit us in Argentina!

Tomorrow will be spent visiting with people. Breakfast with friends in the next county, lunch with one of Ivan's old aviation buddies, drop-in visits to a few others... And we need to clean the house. I'd really like to get that done tomorrow so we can enjoy time with our kids on Saturday. Both kids and their spouses are coming for the day. It would be nice to be caught up with the have-to-do's and just focus on family time.

Sunday we'll be sharing at our home church during both morning services. I'm hoping I won't be too emotional, but that's probably a vain hope. We've got such an amazing and supportive church family, and it's always hard to say good-bye.

I find myself having trouble getting to sleep at night -- the mind just won't shut down, and I keep thinking of things yet to do. And no matter what time I get to sleep, I find myself waking up between 3 to 5 a.m. most mornings. Ugh. I went to bed some time ago, couldn't sleep and ended up getting up. I figured maybe working on a post would help me get sleepy. And you know what, it's working! So I think I'll end this and try to get some rest.