hit the ground running

hm. how'd that happen? yesterday I was up until about now packing for 3 weeks in Colorado...training and skiing. sweaters and balaclava's. this evening I landed on a Southwest flight back in foggy St. Louis, arrived home, dropped those bags back on the floor and within the hour began the 3 loads of laundry from the 3 weeks of travel...or at least it seems that way. where in the world did the last 3 weeks go?!?!

tonight was a flurry of activity here in the Lutjens' residence on Etzel. I stepped foot on the ground here in Missouri and back into my preparations for Africa and Jeff stepped back into preparations for Haiti. It's kinda nice not to be the only one preparing to leave the country :) I was setting aside skirts and sandals and cookbooks, printing financial documents, packing up school books and ski clothes. The Giants - 49ers game was on in the living room as Jeff made trips out to the back yard to burn confidential/personal papers that had been accumulating, paying bills, printing travel documents and instructions, investigating photo transfer options, and somewhere in the mix there was a "dinner" of sorts...

one more week in St. Louis. Strange mix of daunting ("how in the world did the time fly by?" and "oh my goodness will everything get done?" and "oh dear, the goodbyes.") and relieving ("let's get this show on the road!" and "I can't wait to have all these details taken care of, decisions made, things packed, and just get there already!").

The old spiritual comes to mind -

"I want Jesus, to walk with me...all along my pilgrim journey,
Lord I want Jesus, to walk with me..."