Thursday, December 30, 2010

And he's off...

Today was the day that has been much anticipated around our household. I couldn't believe that it came and went so quickly! Luke and I stayed up rather late the night before. We hung out. Hugged about 78 times. Finished packing everyone up. I made a blanket for Luke to take to Emmanuel while he worked on a project downstairs. We laughed and teased (what I quite possibly will miss most while he is gone...who knew that someone making fun of you could be so fun to the one being made fun of??). He is such a goof ball.When we woke up this morning I was so excited for Luke to skip the whole travel thing and just be there already! That may have had something to do with the 15 plus hours of air time that I wouldn't be able to hear from him. MK and I saw him off with the group from Tyler. He is one of the "old men" of the trip. The others, minus one, are college students (some in their first year). I pretty much had an epic fail when I tried to take a picture of the team before they left for the airport. Where's Luke? Oh yeah, that's right, I didn't manage to get his face in the picture.
I snagged one off the ministry website so that everyone can see my hubby's handsome face!
We tried to get a family self portrait before he hopped in the van. I would say it's not as big of a fail as the group picture that I took but it's a close second. I will blame it on the wind (because it was super windy!).
We followed the van to Dallas and met the team for lunch at Chipotle.MK grabbed Violet, turned on "five minutes of bed time music" and was out until we made it to the restaurant where we were meeting them. We ate lunch, said "see you soon", gave Luke some big kisses and then hit the road. I had prepared myself that I might cry for a little while and need to pull in to a parking lot and allow myself a few minutes to recover, but I actually did really well. I was so excited for him. Luke and I have known each other for 10 years now. We hit it off as friends right from the start. He made fun of me. I was OK with laughing at myself. We were quite the pair. Since day one he has had a heart for Africa. That passion and desire to travel there only grew through the years as we were surrounded by friends who had gone and some who had built lasting relationships and continued to return. He loved getting the chance to give towards others trips, sponsor children from Uganda and read about the works God was doing there. To see him off and on his way to a place God has placed in his heart for so long was almost surreal.

The hubs has my camera (I guess it's actually our camera, but I take most of the pictures) with him for the trip so the next several days will have lots of phone pictures and some from my point and shoot which I bought at a garage sale for less than $5. Basically...just a warning that they won't exactly be high quality. I was hoping the point and shoot had manual functions and it does but they don't work. I guess I can't return it though considering the lady on the corner with all the yard art doesn't care if the camera she sold me for $3 works or not.

After about 45 minutes on the road MK was ready to run and scream and play like 15 month olds do. I spotted a Cracker Barrel and knew their porch would be the perfect place.
Madelyn loves to sit in rocking chairs. She would rock in one for a minute then move on to the next one.
About 45 minutes later she was ready to hit the road again. I gave in and let her have her paci in hopes that she would nap. It didn't work, but she was a happy little camper!
We made it to MeeMaw's house in time to see some family, have dinner and put the munchkin down for the night. Before she went to bed I popped in the DVD Luke made for MK. She has the most amazing Daddy. He made her a video for every morning and evening he will be away. Tonight it was a story from her Jesus Storybook Bible. She loved every second of it and kept blowing him kisses.
We will definitely miss him like crazy but are so humbled at the opportunity laid before him. You can follow their journey at www.pcmonline.org/wordpress. Pray for him. Pray for the team. Thank you to everyone who made his trip possible...we are so grateful!

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