Africa Bound

In one year, I got married, quit my job, moved from my beloved San Francisco to Washington D.C., eagerly awaited my husband's first posting within the Foreign Service, found out it was Togo, spent many nights on wikipedia researching said country, freaked out, calmed down, learned French, got a puppy, and now, finally, after 10 months, one of us is on his way to Africa.  

This wouldn't be me, clearly.  I have 13 more days in the U.S. 

Just enough time to finally start this blog so that friends and family can share in this adventure with us! 

I'll start by cluing you all in on how we're feeling right about now.  Check out this Norman Rockwell print entitled "High Dive."  It was Joey's 1st yr. anniversary "paper good" present from me.  It pretty much sums up this year: standing at a ledge, looking down, heart pounding, stomach fluttering, and something between a scream and a huge grin forming around our mouths right before we... jump. 

The unknown is something we both thought we had down pat.  In fact, we sought it out to the extreme with this job and all it entails.  The unknown is exciting!  It's adventurous!  It's so much less boring than the non-unknown!  

But as it turns out, we all create maps of what we think our lives are going to end up looking like.  And how the world we live in takes shape around it.  Whether we know it or not.  And the more we lose sight of those previously drawn shores, the more we realize we're going to need a very, very large eraser.  

And ink smears.  

So we best proceed with a Number 2 pencil.