Leaving within a week

We leave for Africa on Wednesday. Wow. It's starting to get realer and realer.

We still have so much to do, but in the meantime, we're mostly trying to soak up and enjoy each other before our family goes through growing pains with the addition and transition of a new member.

It's always a little rough adding a new member to the family. Whether it be via a newborn--where you get little to no sleep, monitor them constantly, have to coach the older sibs on how to act (or not act) around them etc. Or, in our case, an almost 2 year old who will be experiencing some major culture shock and totally changing life as he knows it within the span of a few days.

Dan and I are hunkering down--seriously paying some attention to each other and trying our best to bolster each other up for whatever is coming our way.

Enjoying every minute with our three as we'll be away from them for 11 days, and knowing that when we get back we'll be a tiny bit less available to them as we'll be intentionally working on helping Taye get acclimated to all things American and Scott family.

Tonight--fireworks. Tomorrow we'll go to the township parade, church, then host a BBQ w/ bonfire in the backyard (and possibly fireworks again if we're all up for it). Sunday is a workday for Dan. Monday my mom flies into town. Tuesday we'd better finish packing. Wednesday we start winging our way to Taye...