The Time Has Come, the Walrus said.

Well, this is it. I'm leaving in 6 and a half hours, so that I can head to LAX in twelve hours, so that I can head to Heathrow in 27 hours, so that I can be in Prague in 30 hours... give or take a few. Today was an odd mix of hyperventilating about packing to the point that I nearly cried in a Payless store, to feeling perfectly peaceful and nostalgic as I ate cake and coffee and sat between my siblings. They wrote notes to sneak into my suitcase, while Dad and I went to church to photocopy some worksheets (for the English classes I'll be teaching) and look up at the moon as it appears from So. Cal... and while I finished packing, towards nine or ten, Mom came up with me and sat on my bed. She told me she is proud of me and knows that I always step up to the plate when I need to... which is exactly what I needed to hear. Parents are lovely people for believing in us when we don't believe in ourselves.

The excitement of the trip is hitting me now... now that I need to be sleeping, before I wake up at five. But with the excitement comes the knowledge that I've never done this before; that I have some incredible responsibilities on this trip and that I KNOW I can't handle them alone. But throughout today, in my more sane moments, I have been reminded that God wouldn't have put me here if he didn't plan on helping me through it. And that's a comforting thought.

Well, the time has come, the walrus said, to talk of other things - of shoes and ships, and ceiling wax, and cabbages and kings....

And while life here in California moves on, I will move on, too. Hope you have a good month, and I'll be back here writing ridiculous things sometime in August. Please remember to pray for me, and the team, and the whole shebang out in the Czech Republic.

Na shledanou!