A matter of days

So, last we spoke I was feeling like a bird who just flew into a plate glass window. You know, just wingin' along, focused on that branch above the shiny new Beamer parked by the curb, when Wham!! Feathers flying, little bits of this and that stuck to the glass, and suddenly I am sitting in the dirt.

It was the illusion of pending travel that we slammed into. But frankly, once we got past the initial shock of the shift in plans, the extra two weeks have been welcome time to get our act together! Don't take this to mean that I am thinking straight however. I tend to feel compelled to do things before I leave town, that I have successfully put off for months prior.... but now they become of the utmost importance. So, my brain is swirling with all of the 'urgent' items on my list, and am fairly certain I am going to forget something embarrassingly simple. If it was something I promised one of you I would do, sorry :).

Our travel dates are set now (unless it's another reflection. Is a bird ever able to fly without a certain level of anxiety again?). We leave next Saturday, March 3rd, 12:20pm. From this day forward, when someone asks me when we leave, I can only answer in days. We head to Berlin for a travel conference Bruce is attending for a few days. We have tickets to see Sting singing with the Berlin Philharmonic, which is supposed to be excellent. I am really excited to see that show. And we will both (Bruce and I) celebrate our birthday's in Berlin. Then we are going to take a few days and drive down to Frankfurt. Our flight leaves Frankfurt Monday, March 12th for Astana directly. Because we land at 10pm (and another 4 time zones later), we spend the night and the next day in Astana. The next evening, we get on the train. And 15 hours, plus or minus, after that we arrive in Arkalyk. And that's where we will meet our new son.

Now you all are up to date. Tomorrow, we are going to try and finish our packing. An exercise that feels like trying to pour an elephant through a funnel.