Preparing for the Unknown

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

As many of you know, Tyrel and I are leaving for Belgium tomorrow! We are so excited to have this opportunity.  This will pretty much be my first time out of the country (I went to Mexico when I was 13 for my sister's basketball tournament, but that doesn't count!).  We just found out earlier this week (it wasn't really confirmed until Wednesday, I think) that we would be leaving this weekend. Crazy.

I figured I would start a blog to document everything.  For one, we just got married and it'll be fun to go back and see how our first year of marriage went.  Secondly, it'll help keep family and friends (you guys!) updated on what's going on and how Tyrel is doing with basketball.  Thirdly, I may get bored over there and need something to do!  Obviously, I'll spend my days eating chocolate and waffles and counterbalancing all that with walking 5,634 miles a day. But I may also need somewhere to keep track of the pounds of fine Belgian chocolate I'll eat.  Hopefully, this blog doesn't end up lame and that some of you will actually read (REED hehe) and enjoy it!

Anyways, our flight takes off tomorrow (Saturday the 20th) in the afternoon.  We'll have a couple hour layover in Chicago and then a straight-through to Brussels.  I'm hoping the plane isn't really crowded and we'll have room to walk around.  There's a 7 hour time difference between here (Kansas) and Verviers, Belgium.  We should arrive around 9ish in the morning.

The crazy thing about going over to Verviers is that we basically had to pack our lives into two bags!  Luckily, Debbie (Ty's mom) is a packing extraordinaire; along with her and the compression bags we bought, we got all my stuff in my suitcases.  They'll supply us with an apartment (fingers crossed that it's fully furnished) and a car.  Unfortunately, the car is a manual...can you imagine me driving one? I may just have to get a little bike with a bell and a basket to go grocery shopping! haha 

I'll try to take a ton of pictures and post them on here and facebook to keep everyone updated.  Facebook and Skype will be our main vessels of communication with the American world so make sure to add us! My Skype username is: j10menard

Wish us luck and send us lots of prayers!

Au revoir! 

Jess and Ty