BY: MEGAN DRAKE and JORDYN FERRARO
Friday, August 15, 2014 – exactly one month until we leave. As we’ve been saying all summer, time keeps flying by us and now we are officially in the final 30 days from when we will be boarding our planes, with a small suitcase and big adventure ahead to explore and live in the home of our hearts, Europe. The thought of leaving in a month is great, and our first reaction is “WOOHOO!!!!” (yes, we are woo girls) but shortly after this burst of excitement, another thought come creeping in – “Shoot, we still have so much to do and so little time!” We are frantically going through the checklists in our heads, and the countless ones on sticky-notes, making sure we have everything from enough underwear in our tiny suitcases, to finding a toothbrush that will be as great as our Sonicare’s – and if you know us, you know thats a big one- which means, the many last minute Target runs have already begun.
We’re also cherishing every moment with friends and family during these last 30 days until we set out. The bittersweetness of moving already left us with a taste of the goodbyes to come, so until that final “see you later”, we’re soaking up the nights watching Shark Week and Bachelor in Paradise (don’t hate, you know you love it) and the mornings of coffee and long walks. It also means we’re going to be consuming everything American we possibly can. As we stuff our faces with the best things the US has to offer (Chick-fil-a, Panera Bread, Dairy Queen, Yogurtland, and of course In-n-Out) we shrug and tell ourselves its ok, and the poor nutritional value doesn’t matter because they don’t have these things in Europe. Obviously those calories don’t count.
But, back to the planning part….
With the first month being planned, we have been trying to figure out what is the best way to plan the rest of our trip. Should we plan out all our places to stay before hand? Or should we leave room for flexibility? We’ve constantly been weighing the pros and cons to each side, and after wrestling with what both would look like, we have decided to loosely plan. It seems like an oxymoron, but loosely planning describes not only our vision for Europe but also our friendship. While we both like spontaneity and adventure, we also think it is important to have some structure (its the doers in us). The same is true for Europe. While we do have a route, we want to be able to be flexible in how long we stay some places, but at the same time we want structure to our trip. We want to be wise in our adventure, but not rigidly planning a schedule that must be kept too. Tangibly, this means planning the bouncing around, crazy, hectic parts of our trip and being flexible in the calmer months.
Ultimately, loosely planning is leaving room for God to work. We both agree, we don’t want any part of this dream trip without The Lord. It is a constant refocusing of our purpose and perspective. We never want to loose sight of the reason we are going to Europe, we want to walk with the Lord in His global purpose. And yes, this means for both of us, that we are facing many unknowns. While it may seem crazy at times to be diving into this adventure and living for a year abroad with our loose plan, we believe we are meant to face it this way to give the space for God to move. For us, that means traveling Europe in confidence because God goes before us and walks along side us. Our prayer for this God-sized adventure is for God to use us as vessels to help bring His kingdom here, that His presence in Europe would be unmistakable
We’re also cherishing every moment with friends and family during these last 30 days until we set out. The bittersweetness of moving already left us with a taste of the goodbyes to come, so until that final “see you later”, we’re soaking up the nights watching Shark Week and Bachelor in Paradise (don’t hate, you know you love it) and the mornings of coffee and long walks. It also means we’re going to be consuming everything American we possibly can. As we stuff our faces with the best things the US has to offer (Chick-fil-a, Panera Bread, Dairy Queen, Yogurtland, and of course In-n-Out) we shrug and tell ourselves its ok, and the poor nutritional value doesn’t matter because they don’t have these things in Europe. Obviously those calories don’t count.
But, back to the planning part….
With the first month being planned, we have been trying to figure out what is the best way to plan the rest of our trip. Should we plan out all our places to stay before hand? Or should we leave room for flexibility? We’ve constantly been weighing the pros and cons to each side, and after wrestling with what both would look like, we have decided to loosely plan. It seems like an oxymoron, but loosely planning describes not only our vision for Europe but also our friendship. While we both like spontaneity and adventure, we also think it is important to have some structure (its the doers in us). The same is true for Europe. While we do have a route, we want to be able to be flexible in how long we stay some places, but at the same time we want structure to our trip. We want to be wise in our adventure, but not rigidly planning a schedule that must be kept too. Tangibly, this means planning the bouncing around, crazy, hectic parts of our trip and being flexible in the calmer months.
Ultimately, loosely planning is leaving room for God to work. We both agree, we don’t want any part of this dream trip without The Lord. It is a constant refocusing of our purpose and perspective. We never want to loose sight of the reason we are going to Europe, we want to walk with the Lord in His global purpose. And yes, this means for both of us, that we are facing many unknowns. While it may seem crazy at times to be diving into this adventure and living for a year abroad with our loose plan, we believe we are meant to face it this way to give the space for God to move. For us, that means traveling Europe in confidence because God goes before us and walks along side us. Our prayer for this God-sized adventure is for God to use us as vessels to help bring His kingdom here, that His presence in Europe would be unmistakable
