11 days

I have often called Nate "Countdown Man" because it seems that he's always got a countdown going for something-days until Man Weekend, days left adjudicating visas, etc. But we seem to have had a bit of a role reversal because I have been the one anxiously counting the days until we leave Guatemala.  Our tour in Guatemala has been good. This country is beautiful, the people are incredibly kind, we've had an over the top home, were blessed with a good group of friends, we had a wonderful baby. But, since we found out we were going to be back in DC for 6-8 months, we both got so excited at the prospect of going back to the life we had 2 years ago.  Things will be different (i.e. we're parents now) but lots of our friends are still there, we'll go back to St. Brendan's which we have heartily missed, and we will have the freedom to roam about the city and explore interesting things without fear of bad things happening.  The negative parts of Guatemala have affected me much more than Nate, and I know he is ready to go back and have "normal" again.

Especially now that Harper is a little older and able to interact and experience things more, I am so excited to take her places and go out and about with her in DC.  It will be sort of like a new DC, especially since we're going to be living IN the city but in a lot of ways, we take the hard part out of moving to a new place-getting to know your way around, making friends, etc.

We arrive September 2nd. We'll get there, show up to our new (amazing) house, greet John & Mona coming that night from Ohio (in our new car!), and hope that Kitty recovers from the shock of having traveled 2,000 miles in an airplane.

Oh, and here is a video that only a proud new parent would post.  I'll spare you having to wait for it to download to see it. It is of Harper's back side, while she plays and coos...a big step for her playing independently and sitting up without falling.


Playing alone from The Doyels on Vimeo.