We just arrived at the Dubuque Regional Airport. Yes, Dubuque has an airport – who knew! I’m sure the very small plane will provide an interesting flight to Chicago, but for now I am enjoying the quaintness of the airport. No mad hussle and bustle yet.

We dropped the kids off with grandma and grandpa – they are so brave and kind to take our kiddos so we can make this trip. And thanks to my mom for dropping us off at the airport. And for our friends who are watching our house for us while we are away. We are so grateful to all of you for helping make this trip possible.

I still can’t really believe that we’re on our way to Italy! It has always been by dream vacation destination. Can’t wait to see Rome, Tuscany, and Venice. Somebody pinch me; I must be dreaming!
Ouch! Ben just pinched me. Thanks Honey. And thank you Ben for taking me on this trip and for all the planning that you put into it.

And I thank God for this wonderful blessing. I pray for safe travels for us and our family. That we may meet people and experience things on this trip that will allow us to experience God and bring Him glory.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

We’re off on our way to a vacation to Italy! It’s a result of several years of local-only trips, completion of Financial Peace University, and a generous sabbatical program from work. It’s also thanks to a huge help from Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Sherrie who will be watching our four little munchkins for the entire duration.

Amanda has been amazing at getting all the final prep work done this last week while I was on a work trip. She’s even packing while I write part of this post! Though I’m doing my part in contributing by reminding her that we’re only planning to take TWO bags. It helps that we’re both so detail-oriented; we each have multiple lists of items and tasks to complete before we leave. Thinks like putting travel alerts on our credit cards (done!), making medical waivers for the kids (todo…), creating a contact sheet for family (done!), getting passports (…uh oh…), handing the house keys over to friends who’ll be staying here a while (hear that, robbers – people will be home, so don’t rob us!).

Now before you go and think this is a romantic getaway and we’re going to be coming back with some sort of news to share, let me squash that rumor right now.  We have no intentions of becoming pregnant on this trip! I mean… you can’t get pregnant if you already are, right?  We figured we should plan this trip before we have any more kids, since the likelihood of finding people crazy loving enough to watch all our little angels decreases with each added blessing. I guess it was a good call since between scheduling the trip and actually taking it … stuff happened.

But more on that later! We’re now in the final hours, taking time off from preparations to focus on our family and enjoying our remaining time together before a long separation.  Ciao!