Getting Giddy

Ukraine is becoming more and more of a reality to me, and it's making me giddy!

Today I came waltzing into Mom's room to relay some new facts about Ukraine I'd learned from a library book over my peanut butter-banana breakfast shake. She was trying to get ready to go somewhere, and as usual, I was bobbing hither and thither trying to squeeze in snatches of what I was trying to say as she went around trying to cope. There was dramatic hand movement, half sentences, etc. Finally she laughed and said:

"Cassie, you're so giddy, you'd think you were talking about some boy!"

Well, what can I say? I do have butterflies, but this is certainly a different matter!

Yesterday, I was at JC Penney's hunting around for something to buy with a $10 voucher after a Christmas present exchange. I was poking around in the sweaters and socks, wondering what wintery clothes I could find to "prepare." Until now, I've been at a loss about starting to actually get things together to go, and I've kind of held Ukraine in general at arms distance. Sure, I've been excited about going all along. But it's not like all the other countries I've gotten giddy over, that I looked up and read about myself. This one just came in the bargain when I agreed to go with the Crowes. I'm looking forward to meeting people and building relationships, but now there is even something more. I don't know how to describe it.

Actually, the funny thought that occured to me while I was browsing through the scrumptiously warm long socks, was that it's kind of like a "nesting instinct" if I could venture to call it that...like a new mother wanting to prepare a nursery for her child, or a mother bird finding straw to build a nest. I'm always going to be a homebody, but I guess home is going to be something I "take with me" and create where ever I am at the time, with whatever I have.

I'm not worried about the material needs and wants for the journey. It's too complicated and overwhelming to me at this point to know what I will take or leave, and after all, I'll only be there a year or two (I think!), so I'm not too preoccupied with it right now. I just have this sense that, more than anything, there's a heart shift going on as the new year begins, preparing me to go forth.

Later on maybe I'll post some of the cool stuff I found out about my "new country." :)