Packing up

I can't believe that we will finally be on our way in one week. The house closing is still on track to close next Thursday, though we will sign the documents Wednesday afternoon. All of the hurdles have been cleared on that end. All we need to do is to sign the paperwork and move the rest of our belongings into storage. We are so thankful to all of you who have been a tremendous support to us over the past several months. Now the big journey begins.

Our plan is for Heather, Rebecca, and hurricane Will to leave early Thursday morning and fly to Atlanta where they will stay with some friends for a few days. Jonathan and I will stay behind and do some last minute cleaning and packing on Thursday. I'll work Friday morning and then take off with Jonathan around 11 am and begin our drive across country where we will meet up with Heather, Rebecca and Will on December 22. We will spend Christmas with my parents in Atlanta and then drive down to Jacksonville on December 27 to spend time with Heather's family, rest up, and make final preparations for going overseas. Jonathan and I will fly out of Orlando to Quito around January 15. Heather, Rebecca and Will will follow 5-7 days later. This will allow for Jonathan and I to get some basic necessities (food, potable water, crib, bedding, chocolate etc.) for living down there and to learn our way around a bit. Our moving coordinator was able to locate a temporary place for us to live while we wait for our permanent home to become available in mid-March. We have already repurchased airline tickets for Heather, Rebecca and Will to fly to Atlanta. What a blessing it is to see the gas prices fall like a rock. There's a fair chance that we might see gas down to about $2.00/gal by the time we travel cross country. The decrease in gas prices alone is going to save us more than $100 in moving expenses.

Jonathan and I had an idea that might be neat. We are thinking about recording and posting short video clips to our blog that detail the move, our arrival in Quito, getting set up, starting work, plugging into the community outreach ministries, etc. We also plan to post pictures. Our initial thoughts are that we will do this throughout our time down there.