We leave tomorrow morning for Bonne Terre, Missouri, to see my parents, brother, and sister for a few days. Then, early Tuesday morning, we will be boarding the Amtrak from St. Louis to Chicago. We will spend a few days in Chicago for launch, then we will be headed to Guatemala!
And I'm freaking. out.
Not because of the whole We're-going-on-the-World-Race-our-lives-will-forever-be-changed thing.
No.
I'm freaking out because I didn't get to pack right.
(Family Guy reference that for some reason Josh and I think is hilarious. He didn't pack it right!)
The Amtrak train we are taking doesn't allow checked bags, so we are sending our packs with a squadmate who is driving with his family, and we are just going to carry our daypacks on.
In classic Jen style, I waited until the LAST MINUTE to pack. Since we are living out of our daypacks for a few days, I couldn't pack all of our clothes into our packs like I would have liked. I didn't get to arrange everything how I would have liked. It got to a point where I told Josh, "Just throw the big stuff in. We'll worry about the little details later." On the outside I may not have seemed like I cared about it much, but the mostly Type A personality in me was saying, "Nooooooo!"
So now I'm super stressed about all of the little details. And how I will fit all the rest of the stuff in our daypacks. So I'm dealing with that stress by blogging. Ha.
We have spent the last week trying to get logistical things done, and spending time with friends and family. We spent Saturday through Wednesday morning with my sister, brother-in-law, and newborn nephew in Kansas City. We visited Central Baptist Theological Seminary (where Tyler goes to school), and also Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (where my friend Kayla goes). We are considering both schools for seminary when we get back from the Race, so it was cool to sit in on some classes.
(Me and Kayla after we visted Midwestern)
We also got to spend some precious time with my nephew Henry. Isn't he adorable?
When we got back to Springfield, I got to hang out with my friends Kristin, Lydia, and Erin. I will miss you guys!
Tonight, we got to see Josh's Grandma McCall, Mendenhall Grandparents, Aunt Carole, Uncle Paul, Aunt Amanda, and cousins Emily and baby Isaac. We had a great time seeing them. We also stopped for Andy's, our favorite frozen custard place, on our way home.
(P.S. I got my hair thinned yesterday, and she straightened it afterwards. This is as straight as it has ever been. I can't get over it.)
Thank you SOOOOO much to everyone who has donated and prayed for us! If you couldn't tell, we did make our deadline! It is such a relief to know that we are officially going on the Race. Meeting this deadline guarantees us that we will be able to go for the first 3 months of the Race (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras). Our next deadline is on December 1st, on which we need to have $22,000 (we currently are at $13,000) to continue on to the next 3 months. Please continue to pray, spread the word, and donate if you are able to! We could not do this without the support of our family and friends, and we are so grateful. 🙂
