Final Preparations and Last Minute Changes

Hi everyone,

We've completed our pre-packing trial #2, and everything seems to fit. Everything that needs to fit, that is.

The paperwork has been copied, collated, organized, re-collated, and re-checked. We'll hit the hay tonight knowing that we're as ready as we can be to leave on our odyssey tomorrow evening. Then it's wheels up at 9:14 AM on Thursday.

Through some good detective work and a lot of persistence Lisa (with Joanne's help - THANKS!!!) was able to score us Business Class Seats at a reasonable price. Here's a snapshot:

These are sweet seats, almost full degree recline, lumbar support, and entertainment center. This will make the trip much more enjoyable. Especially on the return with Kyle, who'll need to park on our laps for 14 hours!
No worries, we've waited over 2 years to make this trip.

Anyway, seems like we're in good shape.

This may be my last post for a little while, depending on how our timing goes tomorrow evening, so just a few words of thanks are in order.

To our families, immediate and extended: Thanks for all of the encouragement and support every step of the way. Your kind wishes helped us through all of the weeks and months of "no news yet..."

To all of our friends, local in Harleysville and far-flung as well: thanks for asking if there's anything you could do - and meaning it. Thanks to the Duffys for sharing their home with us the other night, it wasn't planned that way, but it gave us a great chance to see all of our friends before we leave. (And the food and drink were excellent as always!)

To the folks looking after our own family while we're gone: We really appreciate Liz and Charlie taking such good care of our two cats Mocha and Misty. We can rest so much easier knowing the caring attention that they're getting. Thanks also to Grandmom & PopPop Lockhead and Aunt Mary for spoiling, I mean "looking after" Murphy. The Murph has been the best practice possible to prep for Kyle. Seriously - we're very grateful.

Just a final note if I could...please say a quick prayer tonight or tomorrow for my Dad, he's going in for what we all hope will be a quick procedure on Wednesday morning. All the indicators are green and we're all hopeful for an excellent outcome. We'll be thinking of you.

And Lisa and I will be thinking of all of you as we set out for the far side of the planet to experience a little taste of our son's world for a few weeks.

We look forward to sharing as much of it as we are able to.

Cheers and good night for now.
C

PS For Malissa, Justin, Alyx and Sean Andrew, you can follow our flight from Detroit to Tokyo on http://flightaware.com/ (or another flight tracking website). It's Northwest Flight # 25, Departing Detroit on Thursday at 1:45PM (local time in Detroit). The flight goes over the North Pole, so if it's clear, we should be able to see Santa's workshop. He should be getting ready to load up the sleigh soon - We'll let you know what we see.