Leaving on a Jet Plane

I've waited far too long to be able to use that song's lyrics as the title of my post! Finally, the day is here...And we are SO READY!!
I thought I'd post the photo of our luggage to show you all the STUFF we are bringing with us! That's 3 checked pieces of luggage, 2 carryon duffels, and we will each have a backpack as our personal item (in place of diaper bag or briefcase). I packed way back in February (over my school break) and since then we've packed and repacked many times, sometimes taking things out, but mostly it seemed we were adding things. Important documents are in my backpack; laptop in Rupert's backpack: things we need at hotel near JFK tonight are in our carryons, so we can just park the three pieces of checked luggage near the door of our hotel room and not have to take anything out of them, and wheel them to the lobby tomorrow morning.
Many of you know that when we rent a house on the coast of Maine for a week each summer, we have to take TWO vehicles, due to how my mom and I both pack. So, the fact that we are taking SEVEN pieces of luggage (3 checked, 2 carry on, 2 personal items) is actually me doing quite well with not overpacking.
Tonight will find us at the JFK Courtyard Marriott, getting a good night's rest (hopefully) for our LONG, 16 hour flight tomorrow morning, with a 3 hour layover, and then another 2 hour flight, and then an hour to our hotel. So basically, 24 hours of traveling, if you do not count our flight on Jet Blue tonight.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark of our journey of a lifetime - to our son, Aaron.
I'm also including a photo we took this morning of Donovan, next to his paper countdown chain. Yesterday my students made this for Donovan. Each evening he will tear off one paper loop to represent one more day gone that we are away. This way he will have a visual representation to help him understand how long we will be gone, and how long until we return WITH HIS BROTHER! He had been talking about how we will be gone 19 days, but tomorrow it will be 18 days...