Panic Mode!!!

Well, we have one week before we leave for Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea! We've had a number of unexpected "things" come up that have kept us from making the progress we would have "liked" to have made up to this point.

Saying goodbye has been tough and has taken an emotional toll. We know that the plan as it sits right now is to be gone only a year, but it's still heart wrenching. It's been important for us to take extra time to connect with certain people and those times have been very precious to us.



After a checkup and cleaning at the dentist, we were given the news that one of our kids couldn't wait until we got back to have some teeth extracted. So that took out another day for Ruth (and lightened our wallet a bit and making this a little tighter).

We want to give the kids ample opportunity to see some of their friends before we leave, but chauffeuring them around has taken up considerable time.

So... we are in crunch mode now and we've GOT TO FOCUS! lol.

On a positive note, I've really enjoyed getting a number of projects around the farm completed. We've lived here for 11 years now, and there have been a bunch of things that are either half broke, or just plain unfinished that we've just kinda dealt with for years. But now that we'll have house sitters living here, I figured I better make a prioritized list of the things I would want to fix and finish so the place would be in tip top shape for them when they get here. That work has progressed well, and all I have left is a little cleanup here and there.

In other news, we have successfully packed 3 bags and have a growing pile of more stuff we hope to sort through and pack today.

We've been keeping a meticulous list of everything and it's helping to be organized. It's a good thing that at least one of us doesn't hate excel with a passion :) I'll let you guess who that would be.

Planning for a year living in a country where we can't go to the local supermarket or clothing store for anything we might need is very challenging. Perhaps I'll share our packing list on the blog at some point which will give you the perspective of what it's like. We just hope we're not over or under doing it. We've never been to where we are going so we don't really know what will be available and what won't. So we're just making our best guesses. If we find out that we really needed something but we didn't pack it and we can't get it there, then I guess we didn't really need it. Food, water, clothes and shelter are really the only true essentials anyway. I'm sure we'll survive one way or the other :)