Are you excited?

Are you excited? That question has been posed to us many times over the last several weeks. I would always answer affirmatively while quietly pondering why I wasn’t really excited. I know I was thrilled when we booked this trip several months ago. I spent time reading about Thailand – about the people, their culture, their love of the king; about the many places to visit and all the things to see and do. But over the last several weeks I haven’t felt the same sense of anticipation and excitement I had weeks earlier. I wondered what was wrong, that as the time came closer I was not feeling the excitement everyone else obviously thought I should have.

Then I realized it was all about focus. The time was going by too quickly and I had so much to do. Christmas gatherings. Crossing everything off that priority to-do list at work. Christmas cards. Phone-calls. E-mails. Tending to all the details. Wondering what I was forgetting to do. But then, as I signed off from work yesterday, what’s that I felt? I think it might be some excitement.

And now, as our bags are packed and the last details are all tended to, when we’ve said all our good-byes, and no one else is going to ask us “are you excited?” Now I can finally say, YES, I AM EXCITED. My mind has shifted focus to this great adventure we are about to have. I can almost picture the people we’ll meet, the places we’ll see, the markets we’ll shop at, and the food we’ll taste. And I can almost feel the wonderful hugs we’ll have when we see Ryan and Meagen.

But you know what? I slept better when I wasn’t excited. (Written at 4 am).