...Go!!

So... I'm off !
Bags packed... too much stuff of course!

Pictures coming...

There's the plane... no baking out now!  Prayers now... for patience, wisdom, knowledge. And the openness to be used however God wants.

More soon...

...Set...

Round 1 of packing complete...  Now to unpack it all and winnow down.  Six weeks of cold, rainy weather, followed by one week of hot Floridian summer... makes for interesting packing.  It's okay... I'll get there.

Must admit, I'm getting nervous... at least a little.  It will be a challenge, yet I'm sure very satisfying.  The important thing is: I'm doing it!  I've been so fortunate in my life, through no effort of my own.  Great parents and siblings, lovely daughters, very good friends... God has given me so much.  Now is my chance to give some of it back.  I don't yet know what it is that I will be able to contribute, but I know there is something of me that God can use.  I guess I'll know better after I've been there a few days.  Who knows?  It may be nothing more than a warm body to paint walls.  Or perhaps give hugs to some of the younger kids.  Or maybe teach some teenage girls how to crochet.  As I said... nervous... and excited.

Just three days and I'll be there.  Tomorrow I put Susan Alexis on a plane to spend the rest of the summer with her father.  Caitlin is firmly ensconced in Vermont, making great food for lucky vacationers.  Monday morning, a good friend is taking me to the airport shuttle, and off I go.

Wow!  Been planning this for a couple of months, and here it is already!

Santa Martha

By the way, this is where I will be...  The Santa Martha Home, outside Lima, Peru

Santa Martha Foundation Home

Ready...

Life:  Ready... Set... Go!!!

Act 1: Growing up - age 0-22
Act 2: Getting a life - age 22-30
Act 3: Following dreams (aka midlife crisis!) - age 30-36
Act 4: Marriage and Children - age 36-58
Act 5: Finding myself... again - age 58-???
     Scene 1: Missions in Peru

So, here I go!  The beginning of a new chapter in my life, a new adventure.

Passport: check
Visa: n/a
Ticket: check
Insurance: check
Vaccines: check
Spanish lessons: check (though not certain how much help they'll be!)
Visit to the folks: check
Packing: !!!

Okay, so maybe not quite ready!  But excited, nonetheless.  Leaving in just over a week, and beginning to be a hair overwhelmed.  

Missions... something I've thought about most of my life.  But it takes a certain kind of person, and a calling, to make it your life.  I don't know if I am that kind of person.  I guess we'll find out.  Hopefully six weeks is enough to know.  

So this will be the tale of this adventure.  The last Act has finished, a new one has begun.  What does God have in store?  As usual, it is not mine to know.  But He will be there, and keep and protect me (as long as I actually let Him!) through the next months.  And then when I return, hopefully I will have a clear direction of where He wants me to be.

Now to finish packing!!!