So this time next year, I will be home. For good. Finally back in the
same country with the people I love the most. I can't express to you
fully in this forum how faithful God has been lately, and how excited
I am about everything that is in store for the next year! Starting
right now, basically, things are really picking up, and I have a
feeling these next 11 months are going to be a blur. On Tuesday I
leave to meet up with the team of PC Volunteers that I first stepped
onto Bulgarian soil with almost exactly two years ago. We'll have our
official Close of Service Conference (they all leave in Oct), and then
I come home to hang out with the kids for the week before boarding a
plane bound for HOME. Two weeks. I am so excited. Not only do I have
lots of time planned to hang out with my parents, but I also get to

see one of my closest friends - the lovely Charis - marry the godly

man she is been blessed with in their beloved Chicago. After that, I
come home for just a matter of days before hiking in SWITZERLAND over
Labor Day!! Seriously a dream come true. Once I get home from that,
school is going to start with a bang... and since I live in the one
location in Bulgaria where life doesn't shut down completely during
the winter, I am actually looking forward to it this year! So before
you know it, April is going to be here. I'm going to have to say
goodbye to the colleagues I've grown to respect more than I ever
thought possible, and the kindergarteners and middle schoolers who
have totally won my heart. It brings tears to my eyes now just
thinking about that... 8 months away. BUT, after my DREAM EURO
BACKPACKING TRIP (yes, the one I've been planning since high school),
I plan on coming back through the Bulg to go to camp again on the
Black Sea and close my service out right.

Then, my brother and sister in law (who will be traveling with me for
as much as possible and then joining me at camp) and I will meet up
with my parents in Greece, and prepare to celebrate the end of grad
school for Becky, the end of Ryan's active duty Navy career, and one
of the most eventful and fulfilling Peace Corps experiences known to
man... before boarding a plane all five of us (first vacation ever -
just us) and coming back to my beloved US of A.

And then, the real life everyone warned me about but I'm so anxiously
anticipating - awaits.

Wow.