Okay, due to the prompting of a former colleague, I have decided to set up my own blog as I begin my adventures to South America. Right now I am just testing the waters to see if I am able to actually post anything. After today, I think I will use this to update family and friends in the states of our adventures. We have 16 days to departure and it feels like I have a million things to do still. Found out this week that there is a baggage embargo with Brazil right now, so my brilliant plan of checking excess bags on the flight was shot down by the airlines. Plan B: repack, and ship via US postal service air mail and keep our fingers crossed that nothing gets confiscated in customs. I am guessing we'll receive our items sometime in Sept! :-) Sierra is anxious and starting to realize that we are truly going, but overall her anticipation is still happy. For that I am grateful. I'm not sure how happy she will continue to be when we go through her bags of toys and she realizes it can't all come with her. There's only so much space for belongings. I keep trying to convince her that it means we'll get to buy new stuff when we get there, so we'll see how the downsizing goes. Right now, I'm ready to board and be on my way. I'm looking forward to getting settled into my own home again and meeting the kids and nesting the classroom and having some form of normal instead of the transition we've been in for the past couple of months. It is all coming very quickly.