I think we're gonna need a bigger suitcase ....

Started packing today, since we leave a week from tomorrow. Though I've always been someone who prided herself in packing light, I was amazed to see how much stuff I had accumulated to take with us. I've got 3 suitcases in different sizes on my bedroom floor. "Baby Bear" is holding coats, hats, boots, and gifts for caretakers, drivers, etc. "Mama Bear" is packing clothes for the three of us, as well as all our toiletries. Our biggest suitcase of all, "Papa Bear" is crammed full of medications for any and all potential maladies, stuff to entertain Bella, books, things for Borya and Yulya to play with, snacks, DVDs, journals, a portable jungle-gym, a nanny, some chickens ... uhhh, scratch those last three, I got carried away. Besides the suitcases, we'll each have a carry-on bag and I'll have a purse. My purse would probably put you in mind of what your grandmother once carried. It's an enormous black compartmentalized monstrosity that I bought for our last adoption and haven't used since. Think Mary Poppins' carpet bag when she unpacks in the nursery. Go ahead and dare me to see what all I can't get in there. Heck, I could probably bring my kids back in it.