my bags are packed, and my computer's... dead?

well, the day has almost arrived. just one more sleep and a car ride to tulsa in the morning are all that's between me and my trip to bolivia now. i can't believe it's finally here.

so some snippets of my last full day at home: this afternoon i met up with the accountability girls and another friend named megan for lunch and then free tickets to stomp at the walton arts center which was a blast. i've always wanted to see them, and they were really spectacular. then i came home, dreading it all the while, because i knew coming home meant packing, which i've put off until this evening. so i got home and pack i did. and it took quite a while, interupted only by the awesome french toast my mom made as my last taste of american breakfast food. finally at somewhere around 11:00 pm, i fit the last of my clothes in my internal frame bag WITH LOADS OF ROOM TO SPARE! i was amazed and shocked at how easy it ended up being to pack. i had figured i'd have to pack, only to find i had too much stuff, and then have to scrutinize over what not to bring, etc. etc. but no. it all worked great. the first time around! praise the Lord! seriously though. i definitely think He alone made that possible, b/c i'm the worst overpacker ever, but i think he gave me some good discernment!

and then... tragedy struck. you see, my computer, my good ol' trusty computer, has been making some pretty icky noises lately and freezing up every once in a while, which isn't really characteristic. so today, as i was packing, it was making some exceptionally terrible noises followed by extended freezes=bad news. so i decided to turn it off, to give it a rest. i said a prayer over it b/c i really think the Lord even cares about computers, especially when they're going to serve as my only connection to home over the next two months. but sadly, when i turned her back on, some strange error message came up, telling me to ctrl+alt+del to restart, and when i did that, the same message, over and over again, broken up only by more of the terrible noises. upon calling matt, my trusty computer go to, he informs me that i should probably say goodbye, it's probably dead, or at least not fixable before i go. all, less than 10 hours (many of which need to be spent sleeping) before i need to be leavin the house tomorrow. and i now believe the devil can even target our computers to try and stress us out and distract!

but all hope is not lost. tomorrow, i'll try to turn it on again, and if that still doesn't work, i may be able to talk my way into borrowing my mom's laptop while i'm gone, even though i know that's alot to ask and wouldn't blame her at all if she doens't let me. and if all else fails, i'll just become very well acquainted with the local internet cafes!

so yeah... i leave tomorrow. it's really surreal. but i think i'm finally starting to feel some real excitement, not that i wasn't excited before, but the getting ready to leave had put a serious damper on my excitement. transition times are really hard for me, and this one especially left me feeling really blah and not myself. but now that there's hardly any more preparations that can be done, and the hours and minutes are ticking away, what i'm about to do is finally starting to hit me, and the reality isn't scaring me or freaking me out, but rather i feel more confident and sure now than ever (even after the huge computer setback). the Lord has definitely affirmed this trip over and over to me, showing me in little ways that this is where He wants me this summer. so knowing that, it's really exciting to finally be at the point where i'm puting all the plans into action and finally about to see more of what's in store for the summer.

well, it's off to bed! my next update will probably be from way south of the equator! yay!!!