First-day jitters

Well, for the last 8 months, we've been anxiously awaiting training, the final step before getting to the field. More than once I was sure it would never come. Then we arrived in Virginia and it seemed to actually be within our grasp. Then Isaac got sick, and at 4am in the hospital with no chance of sleep, I imagined all sorts of reasons we would be held out of this training for another 3 months. But Isaac is a trooper and he's doing great, weight holding steady and starting to climb again, cold symptoms almost totally gone. And here we are, the day before we move our things over to the facility just outside of Richmond. Classes don't actually start until Wednesday, but it feels like the day before boarding school. Tomorrow we learn where our "quad" is (apartment-like place we'll call home for the next 8 weeks), and might even meet our house-mates! We'll have private bed-rooms and a bathroom, but shared living room with 3 other couples or families. We're praying for playmates for the kids, while also praying for the poor singles who might get placed with our wild family! We'll let the kids tour their classrooms and the cafeteria, discover the playground, and pick up our first assignments. And after all the longing...I'm quite nervous!

I wonder how we'll possibly get us all up, ready and to breakfast in time for 8:30 classes. I wonder how I'll function with Isaac still waking up every 3-4 hours every night, and how to manage not waking up everyone else in the quad. How will nursing him work during the day, when I'm supposed to be in class? How loudly are the kids going to scream when they discover they have to have 5 or so more shots? Will they make goods friends? Will we make good friends???

But if there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that there's no point developing ulcers over questions life will answer soon enough. So I'll keep wondering, and tomorrow I'll drown my jitters in a good cup of African coffee, and I bet I'll have some answers for you next time I write.