Three days from now...

Welcome to all who've joined us for another Chapman adventure. As you probably know by now, we're heading off for a 9-week journey to Europe as part of Jeff's three-month sabbatical. Because it is a sabbatical, and Jeff truly felt the need to rest and reconnect with God, himself and our family, we're starting our trip with a six-week stay in Erseka, Albania, where our good friends Mark and Ruth Stoscher, and their four children, are missionaries. We hope to slow our pace there and do lots of things that get lost in the shuffle here in Sacramento -- long walks and hikes, reading, playing games, connecting with people around us. Still not entirely sure what day-to-day will look like, but hopefully very different from here. After that time, we'll head to Italy for nine days and Switzerland for 11 days. Quite a long journey, but hopefully an enriching one.

We're currently in high-stress mode. Ok, I (Esther) am in high-stress mode. Jeff is currently playing baseball with his Little League team...cool as a cucumber, I must say. But I'm desperate to get the house cleaned up so our housesitter won't have to say "eew" too many times. And I'm eager to have all the things on my bedroom floor magically get packed into the six suitcases. And there's still a fairly long list of things to do by the end of the weekend. So I'll sign off for now and promise to re-connect when our feet hit Albanian soil on Tuesday.