A Week of Goodbyes

Woohoo! I am on my way! Here I am en route to Miami (where I hope to be able to post this). I can’t believe it!! I’m going to Peru!!!! Wooohooooooooo!!!!

Can you tell that I’m excited?

This certainly has been a crazy week…a week of goodbyes and taking care of last minute details. My mom flew in on Saturday and I had the chance to spend a few days with her. On Sunday, I ran around like a crazy person saying goodbye to as many people as possible. On Sunday night I went to the IT bible study group for a special night of prayer and sending me off (oh, and light refreshments were served!).

Monday was the day that mom and I went to visit Grandmom Kleinschmidt. It’s great to see how my mom & grandmom get along even though my parents have been divorced for a while.

On Tuesday, mom and I visited some old pals in Pottstown and spent the evening with my brother and his family. My neice seemed to enjoy the Veggie Tales cds that I brought and we danced around together. Katelyn is in a constant question asking mode right now…she’ll ask “what are you doing?” “Where did Aunt Carrie go?” and she’ll ask it several times! I enjoyed a sweet evening with them and then said goodbye to my mom and my brother and family.

On Wednesday the saga with my car took another turn! My friend Zoe was interested in buying it and I had it checked out to see what needed to be done for it to pass inspection (due this month). Well, the sad news was that it needed over $1000 of work! Oh Cracker… On top of that it wouldn’t start after they checked it out. The mechanic discovered some corrosion on the starter but somehow finally got it working and tried it several times. I drove it home and can you guess?? Right when I was getting ready to go out to meet my dad for dinner, it wouldn’t start!!! I borrowed my roommate’s car and went to meet my dad, eat dinner and say goodbye. Phew….

Thursday I met up with my old boss and two former coworkers for lunch (thankfully at Landis Supermarket which I could walk to). We went back to Printworks and I said my final goodbyes. That afternoon I said goodbye to my old buddy and car, Cracker as he was loaded up on the junk dealer’s tow truck. Sniff… faithful car of mine, farewell! Thursday night I went out to dinner with 13 ladies from my church. We ate at the Macaroni Grille and it was loads o’ fun and loads o’ food. They loaded me down with tons of chocolate chips, peanut butter and ranch dressing mix packets…oh and cold remedy because I currently have a cold!

Friday morning my friend Starr came over and drove me around to do last minute important details. I said goodbye to her and spent the rest of the day packing and cleaning the loft where I have been living for the past 5 (almost 6) months. Friday night I went over to some people from church’s house and they prayed for me.

Today we had a goodbye lunch at the Ensinger’s house. There were about 15-17 people and it was wonderful to have a goodbye like that! Mandy and Margie provided the yummy food as we chatted and looked at all my scrapbooks. It was sad to say goodbye but what a great send-off.

Heidi helped me to even out the weight in my bags and finish up the last minute things. Janette and I made it out the door before 4:15pm and got to the airport just fine! Yay! My bags turned out to weigh 69 and 67.5 (my limit was 70 lbs)!!! Yay Heidi!

So, here I am sitting in the Miami airport waiting for my 11:55pm flight to Lima. I don’t have free email here but I’ll post this when I can.

Hi! I made it safe to Peru and I am here in Lima staying at the Hostal Happy, eating Peruvian Chinese food (chifa) and working on getting the paperwork processed for a residential visa. Thank you everyone for praying for me.