a dream deferred -- a dream come true

I am sooooooooo excited. This week we spent a small fortune on tickets to Budapest, Hungary, with a couple days in Paris on the way back. We will visit with Jonah who is teaching first, second and third grade Hungarian children in Budapest, and take a trip with him somewhere on the weekend, perhaps to the mountains of Slovakia. All those years while the kids were little I yearned to travel. I looked forward eagerly to work trips which took me to various US cities. And 4 years ago, I made an historic trip with my octogenarian mother and uncle and my 15 year-old daughter, traveling to England and Ireland (with a marvelous but painfully brief 42 hour stay in Paris). So many great things happened on this trip, especially in Ireland, our primary destination, but it was also stressful to travel in such company. I promised myself that one day, I would go back "with adults", but this seemed more abstract than real surrounded by our realities of work, family and income limitations. And yet, here we are, in what would seem to be the most unlikey of times--with uncertainties afoot in both work and finances-- and yet we've just seized an historic moment, an offer we could not refuse, and are following our hearts to Hungary. A dream deferred is poised to become a dream come true. Can this really be happening?