Galatians 5:24

Hey, you all!  Tomorrow is the day, and since I'm so good with planning my time, I just finished packing.  Here is the beginning of this little something that I would like to call adventure.  I'm feeling a bit melancholy, but I'm trying to keep in good spirits.  I know that Haiti is where God wants me (talk about a culture shock), but fleshy comfort wants to keep me here, in the rolling hills of East Tennessee.  So, here I go.

Looking around this comfortable, familiar house, I see a warm bed, an abundance of food, plumbing, clean water, and frivolous luxuries such as the television, computer, Internet, and ipods.  For these things, I am thankful.  I see something as simple as toilet paper and wonder how I will live without it for twelve weeks.  More than these things, I will miss people, the children of God whom I call friends.  I will miss my family, especially my brother.  He will stationed in OK while I'm in Haiti, and I'll return to his empty room probably changed in color and design by my parents who need to cope with his moving out...for good.  Simply, tonight is the last night that I still have my childhood brother.  Apparently, he's an adult now (but by his maturity level, you could have fooled me).  I'm going to miss the way the sun sets on this lake during the humid month of July.  I'm going to miss the smell of grilling hot dogs and hamburgers (although I wouldn't eat them).  As weird as it sounds, I'm going to miss the local news.  I'm going to miss the boat rides, the sleepovers, the camping, the bonfires, and the urgency to do nothing, and my bed.

Yet, although I am going to miss many things about this place, I'm so pumped that I'm finally getting a break from Jefferson County.  20.5 years...I'm always here.  So here's to a bit of an escape from life, from family, from friends, from surroundings, from mindless musings, from familiar faces, from childhood, from grades, from worries, from daily routines and patterns, and here's to adventure, to the unknown, and to straight up fear.  Bring it on.

On the bright side, I still get to watch the season finale of Glee tomorrow night, otherwise, this could be a rough trip.