Final Days Before Departure

June 1, 2008

Today the adventure finally, truly begins. Easel left this afternoon to start his trip Poland and probably won’t be back until April—barring problems that would force his return earlier. Elizabeth and I will follow him in two weeks. That is probably scarier. He has been there. He has some experience with the trip. Elizabeth and I really don’t know what we are in for! I went to Thailand a few years ago for a mission trip. That wasn’t too hard on me because others were in charge and I just followed instructions. This trip, Elizabeth will be depending on me to figure things out as we go along. It’s been years since I’ve been through O’Hare airport but I’m confident that with a ticket and someone willing to give directions—if I can’t read the signs well enough—I’ll be able to find the LOT gate I need and we will make it from Chicago to Warsaw.
Easel’s flight left on schedule, as far as I know. He didn’t call so I’m assuming the best. It was a little hard and a little scary leaving him at the airport this time. We are truly beginning this journey! Actually, it is almost like Poland isn’t the hardest part of all this. Going to Poland is hard, scary, exciting, anxiety-building and great. The hardest part will be coming back in August and leaving Elizabeth here while we go and “do” Poland. She will be starting college and we will be starting “empty nest”. Both things are good but both will be hard—at the outset. I’m confident (or at least hopeful!) that time will make things better on both fronts. At any rate, the next “thing” is orientation at Truman and then a phone call Tuesday morning from Easel to confirm that he arrived safely.