Zimbabwe!!

Yesterday we got the incredible news that we are accepted by TEAM to go to Zimbabwe!! We are so excited that we are finally going. Now that this hurdle is done, the next one will be all the paperwork for our residence permit and my nursing license. Though sometimes we look at the "to do" list and are overwhelmed, and more things get added, I know it will be worth it! I look at pictures of the hospital, and we've been reading a blog of someone who's there right now, and I can't wait to go! One of the "added" issues is that it looks like we'll have to fly to Illinois for pre-training, and we're frustrated to find suddenly several hundred dollars more added to our budget for this trip. We were really hoping to be able to do our training in Calgary! However, we are determined to go, so what's more hurdle to jump over? After all of the preparation, I wish we were going for longer than 6 weeks. Alberta Health Services is not granting any leave of absences of any sort at all right now, though, so I'm stuck with what I can cover with vacation time and banked overtime. I can bank my shifts that I pick up, too, but we also need that money to pay for the trip! We don't know yet when we'll be going, but we are hoping for either Oct-Nov, or Jan-Feb. Hopefully this next stage of paperwork goes smoothly, and even more so, hopefully it gets processed in Zimbabwe quickly! This will be the longest part, I think, waiting to hear back from the Zimbabwean government! Despite looking to the future challenges, I confess a few moments of jumping up and down here at home over the news we are finally accepted! It made yesterday a fantastic day! :)