Dear Blog...

Hello Dear Blog,
I have not meant to ignore you. We have some memories to record, but that has taken a back seat to living those moments.  The calendar is flipping faster and faster.  It seems to flip faster when we haven't been home.  But now we are in one place for a nice little stint of 10 days. 
Ten straight days.
To pack up our home.  To celebrate family birthdays. To enjoy special cousins visiting from Vermont.  To pack for a month of training in Colorado.  To pack suitcases for Albania.
To gaze at tasseling corn and ever-taller soybean fields and feel prairie breezes.
To check and re-check lists.  To say goodbyes.  (Surely not yet?)
Hang on.  We'll be back soon (I hope).

P.S. And since every post is more interesting with photos, enjoy Ellie's little shoot after church a few weeks ago, modeling a birthday gift she received from a special loved one who doesn't live close enough to enjoy seeing Ellie wear her gifts.