Ready?

Last time I posted here, I was still living in Illinois. I was days away from leaving that home and embarking a new adventure and a whole new season of life.

I spent Christmas with Lucas and his family and it was wonderful. I love his family and loved getting to know them better of the holidays. We laughed and hung out and played games and enjoyed each others company. I soaked up his family Christmas traditions and tried to capture it all. And even though they were so loving and so wonderful, I still found myself feeling just a tad homesick on Christmas Eve as my family gathered together to celebrate Christmas. I knew that marrying Lucas meant that he would become my new nuclear family and I was excited to begin that stage, but it didn't curb the sting of homesickness I felt. I was able to Skype with them and loved giggling with my brother and joking around with my dad while my grandma and mom laughed in the background.

A couple of days later, Lucas and I hugged his family goodbye and headed to Colombia for a week. I can hardly believe it, but now, that week is also over. We spent tons of time with my family. We played Settlers and had some intense Uno games. We got lots of wedding planning done and enjoyed being together.

Three days ago, I hugged him goodbye. Goodbye for five months. Our last goodbye. The thought of not seeing him for five months and communicating across an ocean and struggling to find time to talk with an 8 hour time difference was enough to bring me to tears. And yet, the very next thought was always, "Its our last goodbye." Ah, how exciting. Next time I wrap my arms around Lucas, I'll be marrying him three weeks later.

And now, eight days from today, I'm off to Morocco. For a semester. I've been looking forward to this all semester, and now that my departure date is finally here, I'm in shock. I'm actually going to be living in Western Africa for a semester. I'll be communicating using my rudimentary Arabic and yes, I'll be living with a Moroccan family. The amount of changes that will be going on in my life are surreal, and I can hardly wait to board the plane.

Yet, when I return, life as I know it will be completely gone. I'll be done with university. I'll be getting married less than a month after my return. I'll be heading up to Canada to live with Lucas indefinitely and I'll be hoping to find a job. Wow. Typing it out makes my mouth go dry and my stomach feel a bit nauseous.

Am I really ready for all of this?

Ready as I'll ever be.