fire dage og nedtæller stadig

Yes, only four days until Jess and I board that plane and head east. We leave Dallas at 7pm on Thursday night and arrive in Copenhagen on Friday afternoon, where this incredibly handsome and wonderful Dane will be waiting for us...to take us HOME! To help illustrate where we are going, take a look at the map.

We will arrive at the red star....Copenhagen and then head due west to Vejle....from Vejle we head northwest to Herning... where Mads' home is and where our future home will be in only a few months!!

This trip is going to be our chance to get to know the town of Herning and his family.... and we are so excited! I must admit that I am most excited about meeting these two ladies:
Taimi and Trine...Mads' mom and sister. In all my life and in past relationships, I have always wanted to connect with the women in my "significant other's" life... and it NEVER happened...for whatever reason we just never clicked; however, I have such a great feeling about these two ladies. I cannot explain it, but I just know that in my heart, I am already connected to them because of how much I love Mads and how much they love him as well. Our life in Herning will be even more blessed and more full because of the relationship that I will be able to have with each of them... and I cannot wait.

I am practicing my Danish full force between now and when I arrive on Friday...of course, I will still sound like a Texan trying to speak Danish....and may have to refer to my notes (or the cheat sheet I will most likely write on my palms!!) but I am READY!! As soon as I meet Hr and Fru Nørgaard, I will be able to start practicing what I have learned these past few months!!
First I will tell them "Jeg kan tale lidt dansk....." and then off I go.....

"Hyggeligt at møde dig! Jeg er Mads' kæreste!! Hvordan går det?" Then once they respond, I am sure they will ask me how I am doing...so I can reply: "Jeg har det fint og jeg har meget glad i komme i Herning!" (I hope that one is right... I tried to figure it out on my own without looking it up!)

Then after we have dinner with his parents, my Danish tutor, Tine, gave me some tips on how to really impress his mom when I tell her thanks for the meal.... So I will say "Tusind tak for aftensmed, fru Nørgaard!"

Thankfully Mads will be there as our translator (since did I mention that they don't really speak much English??!!)...but I really want to try to understand as much as I can...so that by the time I move in June, they will be able to see how much my conversation skills have improved!! But I am sure that at some point in the conversation, I will have to say, "Kan du tale lidt langsommere?!" The main thing is that they know I am trying....

Speaking of my Danish tutor... I owe a huge thanks to my new friend, Nichole! (who I have not even met yet...but she is a fellow Texan living in Denmark...and who I plan to meet in November when we are in Copenhagen!) Nichole is the one that found my connection to the Wooden Spoon and to my new tutor, Tine Larsen! I had my first one hour private lesson with Tine on Thursday night this past week and when I get home from Denmark, she and I will be meeting each week for one hour until I make my move across the Atlantic.... I have to brag a little on myself after our first meeting. She kept saying how impressed she was with what I had already mastered in Danish on my own. We actually engaged in several small conversations together and I hardly had to refer to my notes at all!! It was GREAT!

Shelly and I are leaving Houston tomorrow after having more adventures than I can even begin to write about...it has been a weekend to remember. We are headed to her friend, Kevin's, home for dinner tonight...Shelly met Kevin just like I met Nichole...right here on blogspot... so we are excited to have a real live person to go with the name! Hopefully we will have some pictures to post later!!

life is great........... and Mads er den bedst part af min liv!
more later....