VAN and an opportunity for gratitude

VAN

then plane

then ship

then train!

   Quite the journey to reach our Osaka home base!

Leg one (VAN) is complete. We drove up to my mom’s house in Indiana to see her before we leave and because she is close to a larger airport.

   I am a “shover” by genetics and by personality and also a last-minute packer. It’s no joke to plan for a 2.5 month international trip for a family of 7 with only carry-ons! But everything in the house got to a point of “enough”, and I was proud of myself for not needing to run back into the house to get anything (Lucas has come to expect this of me).

    Well, tonight as I was reorganizing some of my shoved items, I realized that half of our toiletries didn’t make it here. I’m not sure what happened because these weren’t things I forgot to pack but things I packed that didn’t make it to the van. I think I had a pile, and it ended up going to an out-of-the-way spot in our house (to try to clear the way for the gal house-sitting) instead of the van.

    It was 10:15 pm when I realized this, and I was kicking myself on my way to a late-night Wal-Mart run for making such a dumb mistake. But then the Lord graciously turned my self-condemnation into an opportunity for gratitude. So all the way up and down the medicine and toiletry aisles, I thanked God that…

1. I realized it here in Indiana and not in LA (with no transportation) or on the cruise
2. I realized it in time to do something about it
3. Wal-Mart is a quick 5 minute drive away
4. Wal-Mart was still open for 30 minutes when I got there
5. There was a sing-along song playing when I entered the store
6. I was able to replace the forgotten items cheaply
7. I remembered more things I had forgotten as I walked the aisles
8. The things I bought and the things left behind are all useable
9. Mom had some shampoo and body wash I could use
10. Calvin was willing to put the soaps into the 3 oz containers (after he did the same thing at home this morning)
11. Even if I forget something, I can buy most things I need in Japan
12. I didn’t forget something more difficult to replace cheaply and easily (like my tall jeans or phone or passports)
13. I didn’t forget a kid (like in Home Alone)
14. My late night “emergency” Walmart run wasn’t really an emergency (as I was reminded when sirens and ambulances passed by on their way to a real emergency)
15. We watched a Survivor episode where a “moment of stupidity” for a contestant was chopping off a quarter of his thumb. My moment of stupidity was not nearly as painful nor its consequences as far-reaching.
16. I’M GOING TO JAPAN!

I’m sure there will be many more hiccups on our trip, so this was a good reminder that it will be okay, that I can choose gratitude, and that “even if”_____happens, God will walk with me through it!

The whole crew! And we’re off! When the boys start bickering, we turn on audiobooks, and like magic, everyone calms down. We did two Boxcar Children books —The Mystery Girl and The Mystery Cruise!

Our faithful driver! Thank You, God, for a safe drive! 

We asked, and You answered!

Back home again in Indiana! (I sang that loudly on the way to the bathroom). Lincoln’s boyhood home as well as my girlhood home! I talked with another few travelers. They were on a long journey—Florida to Michigan. But it’s weird to say at an Indiana restaurant stop, “We’re on our way to Japan!”

This is Colson’s “fang tooth” hanging by a thread. He wanted to wait until Mimi’s house since the tooth fairy is more generous here :-).

Sure enough—while eating a pickle chip, he felt something hard in his mouth. 

Getting some outside time to finish September with 100 hours outside.

The bottles that Calvin meticulously prepared this morning only for us to leave them behind