Dear Kenya, Ready Or Not, Here I Come!

Well, tomorrow is the big day.  The day that we have spent the last year preparing for.  While most of you are enjoying friends and family, my husband and I will be ringing in the New Year somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

Dave and I have had the last 24 hours together--just us, no kids--as the grandparents have whisked them away for a few days to enjoy the last of their Christmas vacation in Arizona.  We have spent a significant amount of this 24 hours discussing the past year of our lives.  I will just tell you, it has been a crazy year!  We started listing all of the stuff--good and bad--that has happened this year and are, quite frankly, amazed that we have survived it all!

God has taken us on a long and crazy journey these past 365 days, and it is all culminating together tomorrow as we board a jumbo jet bound for Nairobi!  I have spent several weeks now trying to decide what to talk about in this opening blog to our upcoming trip.  Since it is the eve of New Year's Eve, I think it would be fitting to talk about New Year's resolutions.

In preparation for this trip, Dave and I have received a TON of advice from people.  Most of it has been really helpful--make sure you drink lots of water, make sure you get up and walk around the plane a lot, make sure to take something to help with jet lag, hold on to your passport, switch your phone service to international, pack toilet paper (Huh?  What?  Okay, I can honestly say, I have never, EV-ER traveled anywhere that I have had to pack my own TP!  This may possibly not end well for me.)

Anyway, in the sea of good advice, I did receive 2, very simple, very pertinent pieces of great advice.  Since I'm all about sharing, I have decided that I would like to share these awesome words of advice with you, too. 

So, here it is, my 2013 New Year's Resolutions:

(drum roll, please)

1.  Breathe

2.  Don't forget to look around

For those of you that know me very well, you know that I can be intense.  I mean really intense!  When I am focussed on something, nothing will stand in my way.  And I will always get it accomplished--often to the detriment of anything and anyone around me. 

As I spent time thinking about what changes I would like to implement to my life in 2013 (yep, I know, I'm weird.  I do this every year--just so you know), I realized that I don't spend nearly enough time breathing or looking around.  I mean really breathing or looking around.

As my kids would say, "Of course you have to breathe.  If you didn't you would die."  Well, sure.  But my resolution isn't to just partake in the act of respiration--you know, breathing in and breathing out.  My resolution is to really breathe!  I am resolving to take the time time to just stop.  Clear my head of all the voices (don't judge me, you know you have voices in your head, too!), and just take a minute to enjoy the air.  I mean REALLY.  BREATH.

I have to confess, the looking around part, is going to be a little harder for me.  It is not in my nature to stop and smell the roses.  This one is going to take a bit of concerted effort on my part.  However, I cannot think of a more appropriate, or exciting time to implement this.  Kenya!  I mean really, how many times does someone get to visit such a cool place during their lifetime?  It's not like I have picked an outing to Wal Mart as the maiden voyage for this new resolution (although, that does have a bit of a draw, at times, too).  Yes, I have a BIG job ahead of me (1,700 pair of glasses is no walk in the park), but I am going to take some time every day to look around, enjoy the beauty, experience the people, and relish in God's provision and blessings.

So, to quote the wise and profound words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it". 

I hope you experience an abundance of oxygen, overwhelming clarity of sight, and an amazing and happy New Year!