the calm before the storm

I know I should be trying to sleep now--but I am a little too excited for that. I have spent every spare minute for the past 2 weeks preparing for our 2 month trip to Tanzania. If I wasn't packing, or shopping or organizing, I was list-making, researching (weather? cloth diapering in africa? ) emailing or praying. Not to mention the many meet-ups with dear friends that I had to see just one more time before we go. And not to mention celebrating Christmas on multiple lovely occasions. Oh yes, and attending the birth of a baby boy on Christmas eve. It's hard to unwind after that kind of pace.

A lot of people have been asking questions about where we are going and what we are doing. Most of the time I do not actually have an answer for them--we will just have to find out when we get there. For now, here is a short version of what we do know!

We are going to be in Ntagatcha, Tanzania for 2 months working with an organization called TEAMWORK City of Hope, Tanzania, near the border of Kenya, 45 miles from Lake Victoria.

We will be helping to start a new mission hospital there, which is currently built but not staffed.

We will be living on a campus with over 200 children who are in the children's home.

We will use a generator for electricity when needed, have running water, a flush toilet and refrigeration, but no ice. (This may temporarily be a problem for little T who lately asks for specific numbers of ice cubes in his milk. "I said 8 Mommy, NOT 3! ahhhhhhhh" )

The weather will be in the 80s and it will rain some.

We might see a zebra. I know little T would LOVE that!

We will not have our lighted mobiles, sound machines, lullaby cds, front-loader washing machine, burr grinder drip coffee, half and half, cars, car seats, play dates, various weekly meetings, days at the prison, apartment therapy, pets or Sal's pizza...but what we will have is Time.

I can't wait to get there.

-j

So this is where I post really cute pictures of 

my children for all the world to see?