Tickets.....Check

So, at just 2.5 weeks away from heading to India, Will and I are looking pretty set to go. Our visa's have come in, we've got our plane and train tickets in order, and the bonus of new friends meeting us, just about everywhere we land.

At home, we've been moving things around a bit. Will's office has now become Brooks's room, and Will's office has been squeezed into Brooks's old bedroom. It was fun watching Brooks and her daughter spread out into their new space. Not as much fun watching Will try to fit everything into the smaller room, but I think he's figuring things out pretty well, and is even beginning to purge some things I've not so secretly wanted him to get rid of for a few years.

With this, we recently heard from a lovely gal named Jess, who has agreed to come live in our home with Brooks, so that Will and I have fewer expenses to worry about, while we're away. This is really awesome, as she comes highly recommended by way of our dear friend Mary Jo. We are looking forward to her arrival, and hope to get some hang time with Jess before we leave.

Our cat Mia, also seems to anticipating our departure, in a not so great way. For a few weeks around Will and I being gone for the holidays, and us moving the two rooms around, Mia decided to start a little protest, and began pooping outside of the litter box....not so great! I became pretty frustrated with this, and we all tried multiple tactics at getting Mia to go back to her old routine. Thankfully, after two long talks with our vet, we switched the litter box to a new spot in the house, with new litter, and currently she is making her deposits in the new box. Hurray!


My bonds with my new friends in India, specifically Sheela (our trip coordinator in India) and Jo (the woman I'll be working for) have become much deeper over the last week or 2, as we've been emailing almost every day, sorting out plans. I can not wait to meet these two great ladies, and to throw my arms around them for helping me feel more and more at peace about traveling abroad for the first time. Debbie, our coordinator here in Philly, has also been wonderfully flexible, and always ready to answer questions, even if they are repeats from a few months ago.

Finally, I want to pull a little excerpt from an email my sister and I had yesterday. She was giving me another pep talk after I said "I think I might freak out a little right before we get on the plane. I'm not a panic attack kind of gal, but it might happen then."


Kerry responded by saying, "Your not going to have a panic attack. You'll be too busy worrying about if you forgot anything or excited by the new adventure your are going on. Your life will never be the same and that's a good thing remember. Traveling abroad, esp. to poorer countries changes your life perspective a lot and also makes you grateful for what you have. The biggest thing to look at and notice is not how poor these people are and how devastating their living conditions are, but look at how happy they are. How they smile as their kids play. How old women gossip together no matter what country you are in and old men eye you in every land and language. Don't focus on the negative. Focus on the fact that these people have nothing and yet many of them are happy and living their lives the only way they know how, even if we can never understand how they find happiness with less than what we ourselves can't live without. Plus youre going to be a great novelty for some people and they will be so excited to meet a crazy white girl and guy. Use it to your advantage."

Gosh I love my sister!
Lauren