Packing and Traveling

Packing and traveling are not new concepts to us yet it never seems to get any easier. Since our mission's office is located in the capital city of Asuncion, roughly three hours from the town of Caazapa where we live, we generally have to travel once a month for doctor's appointments, paper work, grocery shopping, truck repairs and other miscellaneous things that come up. Traveling this far is not really that big of a deal. Our children are wonderful travellers. They talk, sleep, sing or just enjoy the passing scenery. It is the packing part that always gives us a headache. And next time we travel, back to Caazapa, there will be a fourth!

We try to plan ahead. I make lots of lists to make sure we've thought through everything we need to bring but when it comes down to it we have one system that always seems to win: wait till the last minute! That's what happened, again, this time. It started Friday morning: I worked on setting aside Sammie's clothes while the boys played outside and Sammie clung to my side or got into everything a toddler is usually getting into at this stage. Dan had set aside the afternoon to be home, packing. As usual plans changed and Dan got home later than expected and I got less done than expected. Somehow we managed to keep the three children entertained, got through dinner and baths and eventually all the children were sleeping while Dan and I attempted to finish what we had kind of started. As is usually the case we called it quits after midnight, planning on waking up early to pack the truck and get a good start. Well, we woke up early but yet again it took us longer to get out that door. We did put the kids to bed in their clothes for the next day and that certainly saved us some time but with three little ones it is amazing how much there is always to think of: diaper bag, high chair, potty, at least four suitcases, car seats, stroller, cooler for food, computer, guitar, books to return to the mission library, movies we've borrowed from other teammates and this time things for our annual Spiritual Life Conference if we are able to go (which includes towels, sheets, blankets, swimsuits, space heater). On this particular trip I had the daunting task of determining how many maternity clothes and post maternity clothes should I bring because this time we are returning back to Caazapa with another child!!

Oh, and in case you didn't know, we are not light packers!!

We love this life God has given us but I'm not sure when we'll get the packing thing down. I can't imagine what it is going to be like when we get ready to go on home assignment in January. We can only hope for improvement.