The Golden Ticket and the Goodbye Before the Last

Since my last post so much has happened. I'm going to set it up in chronological order so it's easy for you to follow.

July 3 -  I woke up to an email from my recruiter. He stated that I would be in Group 1 and to look for an email from a travel agency called Nirvana in a couple of days. Group 1 would be departing between July 19 and July 21. The entire day I was so happy. I had been praying to be in Group 1 and now I was, and on top of that I had a time frame for when we would actually leave. I was getting really tired of answering the question, "When are you guys leaving?" I assumed the email from Nirvana would come later on in the week or the next week.

July 4 - I was getting ready to eat breakfast with my Dad and one of my brothers and an email popped up on my phone. It was from Nirvana with my flight information and my e-ticket. In order for my husband to travel with me I had to let them know he would be joining me immediately and not coming at a later date. All I had to do was send his passport. I scanned his passport to Nirvana and they sent his ticket right back. (I had heard that it could take a week or two to get his itinerary and ticket.) At 7:45am on July 19 we will be flying to Chicago. From there we will have a little layover and then be on a flight to Abu Dhabi. I am super excited but I am not looking forward to a 13 hour flight. I will, however, be armed with lots of entertainment ranging from music to books to movies and tv shows.

July 8 - My friends and family threw us a fabulous Going Away Dinner Party. We walked in and felt like superstars! It was so great to see all of the people we cared about in one place. Many of them we will not be able to see before we go so it was great to give hugs and let them know more about our upcoming travel. We also put an open invite on the table. If they are in Abu Dhabi they can come hang out with us and we'll be happy to show them around. After the dinner party, my bestest friends took me out to 8.2.0 in the Music Factory area and we had THE BEST time. I am definitely going to miss them!