Nesting

My sister came this week to help me prepare for the kids. We worked like dogs for 5 days and got the house in the shape I was hoping it would be. We could have filled a dumpster with the bags of trash and another one with the donations to Goodwill. Then we went to Ikea for some organizers for what was left. The house is now amazing. Brian keeps commenting on how much better it looks.....it is exactly how it should be in our dreams. No clutter. Everything in its' place,a lot of things labelled so they are easy to find and replace. The kids are thrilled- despite how much they gave away, a lot of things turned up that they were looking for and had forgotten they had, so now they are playing with really old toys they haven't seen in years. The school room is ultra-organized and functional and school was a lot of fun today. The time my sister gave me was the most enormous gift I've ever received. She boosted my spirits as we worked, slogging through closets and endless boxes of toys. That sort of work depresses me terribly because it grieves my heart how materialistic and self-centered most Americans are. It just gets to the point where your junk controls you instead of the other way around. I have been a fan of the tv show Hoarders, because it shows how bad it gets if you constantly accumulate junk and don't get rid of what you don't use. The kids like it too- I keep telling them this is how their rooms will look if they don't pick up after themselves. With the way their rooms look now, I am hopeful it will be easy to maintain.
We head out next Saturday. I am so excited. It feels like a hundred years since the process started. We will probably pack later this week. Then it will just be the wait and trying to make sure the house will be ok while we are gone. We have house sitters, but I always want to leave things well situated. I do so much by instinct and it is hard to list the things I check mentally each day.
Our visas are still at the Ethiopian embassy in DC. They said it would take 1 business day to process, so far it's been a week and a half. I will call tomorrow. Praying hard I won't have to drive to DC next week to get them in time for the trip. So grateful to God for how details have sorted out so far, am certain He will be faithful this time as well.