Bags are packed

The girls and Ester.  Ester is a sweet, shy, quiet little girl from next door.  She's also our helper's daughter, so she comes over almost everyday to play with the girls while her mom works.  On Friday, she just wanted so badly to spend as much time as possible with us, so we brought her with us to the MAF dock to say our good-byes.  All four girls spent the time at the dock playing around in the grass.  (Remember that post of the girls playing in the water a few weeks ago?  This is that same area, now bone-dry.) We're going to miss Ester...and so many other friends here. I'm not going to mention how very much we will miss our MAF family. (okay, guess I just did)   Sniff.

Well, what a surreal feeling.  Our house is pretty echo-y.  Since we're having the interior painted while we're gone, I took down all of our pictures and wall hangings.  I also put away breakables and special items that might get damaged just sitting around the house for 6 months.  It feels pretty empty and quite a bit sad.

Silly emotions.  They are just all over the place.  I'm really, really glad this isn't a permanent move this time.  Sean and I agreed after all this packing we've done this past week and saying (temporary) good-byes - going on a furlough is definitely easier than moving...but it's also still really hard and emotional and weird.

Sean and I spent the morning getting bags packed for our trip.  It was ridiculous.  We were both quite out of it.  We've traveled and made "temporary" moves often enough that you'd think we'd have it all figured out, but you'd never know it if you'd been watching us this morning.  Good grief.  Oh, and did I mention that other than a few clothes and schoolbooks, we hardly have much to bring with us anyway?  I hope we remembered our toothbrushes...and the passports.  Sheesh.

We've eaten out one last time at our favorite restaurants.  We've been down to the dock to tell our MAF staff thank you and farewell til our return.  We've had going away teas and pizza parties with our friends and teammates.  We've seen the vet one last time (Duchess is much better!) and delivered the sugar gliders to their babysitters. What are we forgetting?

Our bags are packed!  We're on our way!  Well, not quite yet.  Tomorrow (Monday) morning we head out.  We'll spend a couple of days in Jakarta visiting the dentist and hunting in outlet stores for shoes and coats, then it's on the plane for Boise.  I'm going to try to drop in here to let you know how our travels go...here's hoping we have decent internet!

Ack!  It's getting so exciting!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!