Step one: Get to LAX.

It's 7 pm home time, 6 Chicago. Miriam is watching the airplanes through the terminal window and getting excited. I don't know how much she understands; she tells me we're going "up inna sky" on the airplane, and she explains quite well that out endpoint is Papua New Guinea, but she's also quite sure that we're going to see Grandma and Auntie Chelly there. I'm not sure how much I understand, really.

It's starting to become real, now that our luggage is checked and we're ready to fly. We'll have to pick it up in Brisbane, the way things stand now, and check in all over again. I only hope everything arrives with us.