A DAD'S JOURNAL
 

Countdown Week 8-  July 4 Week

After going to the same location to work for twenty-one years, this was my last week driving to the James Ford Bell Technical Center for almost a year! 

It started with the July 4^th. holiday.  We had a Kirkwood family reunion at our house, the last time we would all be together as a group before the adventure.  There are fifteen of us in my immediate family including my parents, their kids and grandkids.  It worked out great to have Harvey (the RV) as the auxiliary sleeping quarters for our kids and their cousins!

Later in the week, my boss asked me to drop by a conference room to go over some final transition arrangements.  Instead, he had organized a bon voyage party with some of my closest coworkers.  They properly outfitted me for our trip with fine tourist clothes and traveling and homeschool essentials!  It may well be similar at other companies, but there are so many truly good people at General Mills, I will miss them during the adventure. 

Late Friday afternoon when I finally cleared off the desk, e-mail box, voicemail and got everything in order, it was pretty strange leaving my office… 

On Saturday I gave a presentation at our monthly Men’s Breakfast at Ridgewood Church.  Many had shown interest in our adventure so a couple of the guys suggested I share our goals and plans for the adventure.  As I pondered all of the things that had to come together to make this dream a reality I could really see God’s hand in it all.