Rading the pharmacy

The update is, we are in the middle of packing up everything we need to take to East Asia, applying for visas, finalizing our travel plans, moving out of our apartment, setting up a living will, opening new bank accounts, etc., etc. Just yesterday I bought $300 worth of deoderant, tampons, razors, pregnancy tests (just in case), children's toothpaste, our favorite shampoo, and everything else we can't find where we are going. I was sure someone would question me at the checkout for buying six boxes of allergy medicine, what with the current meth situation in Arkansas. But no one did. I did get a few weird looks, though.

So we've been a little busy. We'll pick up on the blogging again when we get in country. Just a few more weeks!

Time Marches On

Once in a lifetime, twice if you're lucky, you find that couple, of which your husband loves her husband and you love her husband and she and you are made for each other and she loves your husband and your kids are best friends. And then if you're REALLY lucky, like us, you get to live right next door to them for a year or so. And then if you're REALLY, REALLY lucky, like us, you're not only next-door neighbors, but your front doors are 20 feet apart and you share a wall. Apartment #1 and apartment #2, that was us. We talked every day and our kids played together many evenings a week. We spent Saturday mornings in our pj's, husbands included, eating fresh doughnuts from Paul's bakery.

Just one week into our stay in Orlando, we got a call that Darci's husband, Matt, had been offered his dream job an hour a way, and of course he accepted it. "I don't think we'll be moving out before you get home," Darci said on the phone. A week later, she called back and said that they were moving out the next day. We still had 2 1/2 weeks in Florida. I couldn't even talk to her because I was crying so hard. Though I knew we would see each other a few times before our big move to East Asia in August, our whole way of life with Matt and Darci and their kids was gone, and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to it.

And now, as I think about pulling back into our apartment on Thursday, it pains me that apartment #1 will be empty and dark. Their bikes and scooters will not be leaning outside their door. There will be no "Welcome Home" sign on our door like there has been before.

And today, as I was driving in Orlando, I picked up my cell phone and dialed their old number, thinking it might still ring. But it didn't.

"The number you dialed is no longer in service," was all I heard on the other end. I laid the phone down and bit back the tears. Time really does march on.

All in a day's work

Things we've done in the last 48 hours:
~ pulled a dead cat from our air conditioning unit in our car
~ ate a whole fish, head and all, at a Philipino restaurant
~ made a safety belt out of a Target bag to keep Zion in the high chair at the Philipino restaurant
~ cancelled our trip to the Kennedy Space Center with our friends from England so we could clean up our townhouse
~ picked out lingerie (for a friend who is getting married)
~ Stood in line at the Old Navy sale for 25 minutes (to pay for the lingerie)
~ Got peed on by Zion while in line at the Old Navy sale
~ watched a documentary on the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart
~ Stood in the rain because it felt good

Forever Young

Last night, Daniel and I felt young again. A typical date night for us is grabbing coffee and thumbing through magazines at Barnes and Noble, or ordering desert at our favorite riverside restaurant. I hadn't realized how middle-aged we had become.

Until last night.

We took advantage of our passes to Sea World (one of the perks of being here), and ran in after dark to ride the Kraken. Neither of us had been on a roller coster in over a decade. With the wind in our hair, we screamed our way through every loop and drop. When we came to a halt, I felt like 10 years had been stripped away.

Next, we ran through the park and peeled out of Sea World's parking lot (that might be a dramatization) so we would make it to our movie in time. Rather than our usual thought-provoking selection, we bought tickets for "Get Smart." I highly recommend it. It felt so good to laugh like that.

We left the theater after midnight, hand-in-hand, amongst cologne-spritzed teenagers. I felt like I was 19 again.

Who needs age-defying make up? Just get out there and do the things you did when you were a kid (the appropriate things, of course) and you'll feel like you are one. You really will. It's good for the soul.

Home Sweet Home

It has started to "hit me" that we are moving to another country. My residency will not be the United States. Yesterday, in cross cultural training class, I noticed the tiny bouquet of flags in the center of our table. The stars and stripes were, coincidentally, flying right beside our soon-to-be country's flag. I stared at it for a while, and as I did, it occurred to me that even if we move back to the U.S. in three years, this particular country (which I won't name for security reasons) will have become part of our family's story. Just then a girl across the table moved and I noticed a tattoo on her wrist, a tattoo of a verse in the language we will someday speak. I looked at my wrist and thought (though I'm fairly certain I will not get a tattoo) that a similar tattoo would someday make sense on my own wrist. These thoughts are baffling and lovely.

And just today, after lunch, I was practicing the phrase "thank you" in the language we are learning, and Bright, who overheard me from the across the room, said, "No, Mom, you don't say it THAT way." He then went on to correct me. I didn't know he even knew how to say thank you in that language, but alas, he DID sound more authentic than me and I took his advice.

R & R

Today we went to Wal-Mart instead of our local house. Why would any self-respecting M skip house to go to Wal-Mart? To be with our kids, who were in childcare all week until 1 p.m. and who we were not about to plunk in some random nursery this morning. Instead, we rested. Imagine, a day of rest on the sabbath! The concept is foreign to most, especially a young M and his family. Needless to say, today was a real treat. We got McDonald's fries on our way home from Wal-Mart, and then played in the pool until nap time. Now Daniel is taking advantage of his fourth father's day to work out at the gym and I am blogging in dry, clean clothes, munching on trail mix and waiting on my phone to charge up so I can call Darci back home.

Happy Father's Day to all those dad's out there. I hope you are taking the time to rest.

FYI we're in FL for five weeks with the company training...

Normal & New

Well, the weirdness of a new place finally caught up to me today. As much as I would like to think that we're ninjas at moving around, even this very nice place is just not "normal." As Kayla and I talked about it, I realized that in spite of being in sunny Florida, in a real nice apartment, surrounded by great people who share our hearts - this is definitely not "normal."

Just then Bright woke up from his late afternoon nap, only a few minutes before dinner. At home we all love being at the table, looking at our world map and each other. Here, for some reason we've been eating at the island in our kitchen. Though that's fairly adventuresome and exotic for the Rupp's, I wanted home. So, in a last ditch effort for "normal," I grabbed the map we hadn't unpacked, the scotch tape, and moved us to the dining table.

As we sat down, Bright instantly recognized it as our "old" map. (Barry and Sarah got us a new one for Christmas.) Coincidentally, over the past few months we've been trying to give Bright an accurate picture of heaven. Instead of floating in the sky, we talk about "old" things and "new" things and specifically how someday Dad will come and make all things NEW. As the words came out of his mouth, a state of reflection came over his face. "Someday Dad will come out of the sky and make that map new." I needed to hear it.

My three year old was reminding me that really I'm not looking for "normal" as much as I'm longing for the NEW to come. Every tribe and tongue on that map, including mine. After dinner we got in the car and found a Goodwill, where we bought fun second-hand shirts and Bright a pink tricycle for $5.95. And that helped too.