Last Days in the USA

The last couple of weeks have been the most emotionally and physically taxing in recent memory. Hundreds of errands, emails, forms, phone calls, chores, and goodbyes have rendered us utterly exhausted and raw. Most nights after the kids are in bed, we've found ourselves lying flat on the floor, or staring blankly at the wall, completely overwhelmed and spent, digging deep into our energy reserves for another round of tasks before we finally collapse into bed for a few hours. The demands of preparing to move overseas for an unknown amount of time have not left much time or energy for blogging and recording the process. I spent a lot of time the last week wishing I’d captured all the events, people, and special moments more thoroughly.

But one thing this perfectionist has learned about blogging is that you often must post the incomplete, imperfect, disorganized, or scattered for the sake of and moving on. It is very easy to wait, stall, fall behind, and then before you know it, it's been 6 months or a year since your last post! Therefore, I will post what I have right now, so we can begin documenting our new life in our “new land” (as James calls it). What I wish it was is a series of posts with detailed captions and descriptions that tell a complete story. What it actually is is a random slideshow with photos in no particular order. With generic acoustic guitar music that showed up along with it, apparently. Huh, thanks iPhoto. Welp, gonna leave it and move on!

The rest of the memories and photos will just have to live in our hearts (and on other people’s cameras) for now. Meanwhile, if anyone does have pictures from the last couple of weeks, I’d love to have them. Thanks to my Dad for taking some of these.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words, support, prayers, best wishes, and love as we embark on our new adventure. It's what got us through. And also, thanks for checking this blog. Sharing our lives in this way helps us feel more connected to you all.