Good morning folks!

Well how 'bout an early post for you early risers?

Last night, Tara, Ajit, JB, and myself had dinner at the Fischers house. Dr. Fishcher is a pediatrician at Mayo and was a missionary in Africa years back. He has great connections to the area we are going and will actually will be joining us for the tail end of our trip. In addition, Dr. Thacher joined us for dinner. Dr. Thacher is currently a missionary in Jos. Check out his website at: Thachers Home. He will be coming to the states to work at Mayo later this summer. He was in town for a week for some odds and ends and is actually on our return trip to Nigeria on Sunday night.

It was a great evening to talk about a wide variety of topics. We, of course, talked about Nigeria. However, there were other topics on the agenda as well including Ajit's love life and our struggle with infertility. The Fischers are a tall family as well so, of course, there was good tall-bonding taking place as well. We had the opportunity to ask questions and get advice before leaving on Sunday night. We also found a way to get JB's driver license to Nigeria. JB needs to be able to drive when we get to South Africa as we have rented a van for the trip. However, South Africa won't recognize a US military ID as a driver's license as the US does (Imagine that!). So John went and retook his driver's test in Minnesota only to be told he had to wait five weeks for the license! Anyways, Dr. Fischer is going to bring it to Nigeria with him later on in the trip. Isn't it amazing how God takes care of even the little details?

I woke up this morning with a better-feeling mouth. Please keep praying for me in that area. I would just like to feel better before we head out. I ask Dr. Thatcher about a dentist in the area (just in case), and he said the missionary dentist is on furlough. So my comfort-seeking fell on its face a bit. Oh well. God has taken care of so many other things in our lives -- I know he can take care of a sore mouth!

Our god daughter Jessie, when she was little, used to count days leading up to an exciting event by how many more times she had to go to bed before they happened. If that's the case, then we have "three sleeps" before we leave for six weeks.

Many of you have asked about the status of the blog while I am gone. We have been told we may have some Internet access in Jos. Between my blog and Tara's blog, we hope to update periodically. We don't know how often that will be. It will depend on our time and the status of the electricity as it is not consistent. So while you won't be getting daily updates, you can check in here and on Tara's blog periodically to see if we have any updates for you. Ajit plans to give this to his mom as well who isn't too keen on not being able to check on her boy (and assuring someone is feeding him) on a daily basis.

As for email contact, I do not plan on emailing at all while I am gone. I don't want to get my head stuck in a computer and fail to spend time looking around me. If you can avoid emailing me as well, that will prevent my inbox from cluttering up and tempting me. If you have something to tell me, put a comment on my blog. That will keep my communication in one central place.

Three sleeps to go ...