And they're off!

Welcome to my blog!  You're getting in on the action right from the start, because as of today (well, yesterday, since it's after midnight), we are officially on our journey to Belize for a year of exciting adventures while we volunteer with Hillside Clinic!  We are so thrilled about this whole year and I am glad to share it with you through this blog.  

At Hampton Beach just a few days prior to departure.

I write this initial blog post from the cozy familiarity of my aunt and uncle's house in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, which is not too far from Philadelphia.  James, Juliette, and I had a great first day of travel from our home in Kingston, New Hampshire, down to the Philly area.  

Firstly, the van and the trailer performed very well.  This first day was an important test as to how well our mechanized beast of burden will handle the strain of hauling a heavy trailer all the way from New Hampshire to Belize.  And when I say heavy, I mean it.  James has that thing stuffed to the gills with a generator for the clinic, lots of tools and equipment, a couple of bikes, our clothes, our kitchen stuff, and lots of miscellanea that will hopefully make living life abroad for a year less challenging and more homey.  I will have to post a picture of how jam-packed the compartment is, but in the meantime, here's a shot of our life and home packed up into this trailer.  (With the makings of a home inside a trailer, would this possibly be considered a "trailer home"?)

Yes, I am available to consult on your next car commercial.

Juliette and I enjoyed refreshing naps and played "let's smear the banana mush on the car seat instead of eating it" while our stoic chauffeur whisked us along turnpikes and parkways to get to our destination: the Tap Room, "Chesapeake City's Premiere Crab House."  We were meeting my Aunt Susan, Uncle Pat, Cousin Michael, and friend Hanh there to celebrate the birthdays of Michael and Hanh, who happen to share the same birthday - happy birthday to both of them!  It was so wonderful, as it always is, to see dear family members and share food and conversation while enjoying each other's company.  Well, I admit I didn't share the food, as I prefer to enjoy crabs alive and in their natural habitat.  I opted for a non-crustacean repast of manicotti; in my opinion, crushing crab corpses curtails congenial culinary consumption.  Also, alliteration ameliorates almost all activities.  ;)

Decapods are friends, not food!

I don't think it's fully set in that we've really left home for a year abroad, but we are so excited nonetheless.  Maybe we just need to recover from staying up ridiculously late/early to finish packing...  there's nothing quite like rearranging the car and trailer by moonlight in the wee hours, fervently hoping that everything will squish into a space that doesn't look quite big enough.  

It did help us feel the reality of the situation, though, when our home church, West Congregational Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts, gave us a beautiful and kind send-off last Sunday.  They let us tell them a little bit about what we'll be doing down at the clinic and then prayed for us and our year in Belize.  Here's James and I describing our upcoming adventures and then sharing some group prayer:

The little munchkin couldn't stand still, so she ended up wandering all around while we talked.  :)

Anyway, it's very late and time for bed.  The sooner I get to bed, the sooner I come one day closer to turning this plump little cutie into a Belizean baby!