And the Packing Begins

I can't believe that we are a month away from leaving for Africa. I have piles of stuff shoved into most closets and we have started purchasing several trunks to put it all in. We are planning on taking 2 trunks per person which amounts to 400 lbs. of stuff. It sounded like a ton to me at first, but I am quickly finding it is not that much when you are going somewhere with two children for five months. Oh, how I love the things God is teaching me through this process. :) Trusting. Depending, Believing. Walking hand in hand with the One who has called us to be His children. While the lessons we learn in life can sometimes be very difficult, it is so fulfilling to look back and to see how far God has brought us.

My "To Do" lists are scattered all over the place. I make one every time I have some down time but can never seem to find the same list to add to so I have about five lists scattered about in purses, my car, our house, and at work. I am not sure how much of it will get accomplished but I know that whatever needs to happen will and the rest probably doesn't matter that much anyways. :) I was able to mark off a few things on my list this past week.

I ordered both of the kids some African sun hats from Amazon. These Sunday Afternoon hats were suggested by one of the missionary moms for good protection from the sun. They are floppy to cover the neck and shoulders and are supposed to reflect some of the harmful UV rays. We are going to have some very hot weather while we are there, mostly in the last two months of our visit so I think these will come in handy. Eli and Hailey LOVE them. Hailey would have worn hers to bed tonight if we had let her. :)

I have also taken care of most of Hailey's diapers for our trip. We are planning on doing half cloth and half disposable. However, some of her disposable diapers are on the top list of things that might get booted if we are limited on space. They take up lots of room. After talking to a cloth diapering friend (thanks Jo!) and a lady at the cloth diapering store in town I decided to go with diaper covers over the prefolds so I can hopefully reuse the cover throughout the day and just change the prefold inside. I tried one on Hailey tonight and it worked great. She didn't even seem to notice the difference. It is tough getting the cloth diaper part folded just right with a moving target. I think I need some more practice. :)

There is still lots more to do but we are so excited for what awaits us in just a month!