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The day after tomorrow we'll be in Uganda. We leave tomorrow, Sunday, around noon from Sea-Tac airport. But we arrive in Uganda on Monday night, Uganda time. Right now I'm still trying to figure out what time it'll be here in the states. Krista added a sweet widget on the right hand side of our Uganda page that tells what time it is in Uganda. I think we'll arrive on Monday morning, U.S. time.

Yesterday we had an amazing afternoon. We've had some difficulty establishing residency in Washington state because our permanent address is a post office box so all our mail has that address which (according to the nice people at the department of licensing) does not prove residency. So we've already been turned away from getting our Washington State driver's licenses once. Friday afternoon we were waiting for a package to be delivered that was coming by UPS direct to the house so it would have our physical address on it. By 2:30pm it hadn't arrived. This was our last business day before departure. At 2:30pm.

We set out at 2:39pm from my parent's house for the roughly 30 minute drive to Tacoma, stopping along the way to pick up a year's supply of contact lenses. What we really needed was them to write me a receipt with our physical address on it. There was no line at the contact lens place.
Our second stop was at the Voter Registration office in Tacoma which went without a hitch. We didn't really need to register to vote so early before the next election but we did need to get a voter registration card (to prove residency). Again, no line.
Our third stop was downtown Tacoma to get our background checks for our work permits in Uganda. We got there a few minutes before closing. There was only one person in line ahead of us.
Then back across town to the department of licensing. We walked in and pulled number 340. They were helping number 290-something when we arrived. We were called up to the front about 2 minutes before closing time. They were SO NICE! They welcomed me "back" to Washington state and issued us licenses!
With new licenses in hand, then, we had to high-tail it across town again to get to the AAA office for our International Driving Permits. Once again, we arrived minutes before closing and there was no line at all.

I'm completely amazed at what we got done in the span of three hours. My Mom was an awesome chauffer providing door-to-door service and lots of emotional support. God provided hardly any traffic, fast stop lights, and perfect timing with easy waiting lines. And He somehow kept us calm (at least outwardly calm) throughout our quest which was good because it's not generally a good thing to be all anxious and nervous when applying for a license or background check.

It'll be different in Uganda. As my supervisor says, "If you get one thing done in a single day you're doing pretty good." I feel like a cliff diver gathering myself one last time before the dive. I'm in that moment of a long, slow blink where you know what's in front of you, you know what you're going to do, but you can't see over the edge just yet. If it weren't for that amazing lifeguard in the sky (Psalm 121), I'd be scared to death.

See you on the flip side!

-Shauen