Assignment Accepted.

I tiredly stumble in the front door after a long day of work to find my roommates sitting on the couch. "Did either of you check the mail yet..?" I ask expectantly. "No.. But there was a package left for you on the doorstep." My heart started beating faster. Why the racing? I've known the package was coming. The Peace Corps had notified me days earlier that an "Invitation Package" had been mailed to me. But still, this pre-knowledge didn't halt the racing. The surreal, raw, pending reality had hit.. and it had a name, a job detail, and a time frame.

Like any learned student of the information age, I immediately pull out my laptop to google The Kyrgyz Republic. I spend the next few hours crouched on the floor of my large walk-in closet reading all of the materials provided by The Peace Corps on this Central Asian country as well as scouring the nearly endless depths of the Internet. I spend the following week researching and more importantly thoughtfully and prayerfully considering my upcoming decision.

Confirmation came in many forms. The "many" part was easily my greatest confirmation. The subject line of the acceptance email to The Peace Corps read: "Accept Verification for The Kyrgyz Republic", and went on to detail "I, Amanda Lawson, am accepting my invitation to serve as a Secondary Education Teacher Peace Corps Volunteer in The Kyrgyz Republic, departing May 10, 2012..."

This blog has a few purposes. First, it's an easy way to share my experiences along this journey, both joyful and challenging, with my friends and family back here in the US. Second, I'd hope that at times, this blog would serve as a voice and an advocate for the Kyrgyz people- their triumphs (whether small or large) and struggles. Lastly, this blog serves as a timeless documentation of a period of time in my life. So that maybe one day I can get a "hey mom, that's pretty cool" out of at least one of my kids ;)

See below a 'lil geography lesson :)