Hurry up and wait.. That is the theme of any PCS I know but boy was it my anthem for this past year. This move has been a year in the making. I know it was God’s time, lining up things with selling the house, opening just the right position for Matt, waiting until I recived the treatment I didn’t know I needed from the accident, and most importantly readying our hearts. This was the biggest leap of faith either of us had ever taken and we wanted to make sure we prayed along the way, and showed our children what it meant to “walk by faith”. But of course the human part of me despised living in limbo. I felt I was straddling the fault line of 2 world and one move either way would throw me off balance. I tried to pull back from things when I could, but every time I felt I did, I would have this twinge of guilt and sadness and added 2 more thing in its place. I wanted to let the kids have as many “normal” experiences with their friends and family, and even baseball. Matt went back to Germany July 14th, 2023 for a short 3 month TDY trip because they needed him in Stuttgart ASAP. So that left me once again, single parenting. Our goal was to get us out there by October 18th (very specific for reasons) and by golly we made it happen with God’s blessings.

That doesn’t mean Satan tried to throw curve balls with random doctor appointments, an impromptu meeting with an orthopeadic surgeon (thankfully my neck surgery can wait the 2-3 years until we come home), sicknesses, car battery dying, cat vet appointments, special microchipping, and many more emotional rollar coasters. But with every satanic curve ball, our mighty Father in heaven hit homeruns for us every time by putting amazing people in our paths that helped and loved us along the way (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE 🙂

So after hanging around and slowly making our way to the moving date, we had a turbo sized sprint the week before Moving day! It started with getting the car in for service and to address a recall before they would ship it, thankfully Matt came home for 4 days to do this and set up the movers. I had to take the cats to Fort Moore in Columbus for their international health certificates which were only good for 10 days so the clock really started ticking. I was afraid they were going to say Rosie was too fat to fly but after a brief diet plan, they stamped the certificates and the cats were ready to fly! I got special carriers, even harnesses and some good ol gabapentin to help mellow them out on the plane. Then in between traveling to see family in Jefferson, my dad, helping my sister with her new baby, it was time to start the dividing of the packing. I had to seperate three packing and shipping loads. The first one was the luggage we would carry on the plane with us, things we needee right away. Before Matt went back I loaded him up with toiletries, a few kitchen items, some sheets and towels, cleaning supplies and a king air mattress for “aunt Lyndsey.” Matt and I then proceeded to buy out TJ MAxx for their hard luggage and got 12 great duffel bags from amazon. We had a total of 6 duffel bags, 6 large hard suitcases, 3 small roll on suitcases, 6 back packs, 2 cat carriers and 2 car seats! These were all strategically packed and weighed and labeled! 

Then the next shipment was our unaccompanied baggage which would arrive 2-3 weeks after we arrived. This would include clothes, shoes, some toys, some light weight storage containers, small kitchen items, bike helmets and the twins’ scooters, oh and the precious X-box. No furniture could go on this shipment and it had to weight under 600 lbs. Finally I just ad to pull out what the movers were going to take and label and group together. These 2 packing companies came on the same day, 2 days prior to our flights, (along with a mobile car detailer to clean up the van before its’ voyage across the ocean). Mom and Carolyn were huge helps on these 2 days, along with my dad who changed out my car battery! It takes a village and i have the best! Finally day before the flight and I have had at least 3 panic attacks in the last 24 hours and cried more tears than I could have imagined, it was time to take my car to be shipped. These people don’t play! There couldn’t be a speck of dirt inside or outside so I drove barefoot to the drop off! You also had to have ¼ tank of gas in the tank or less so I had to “burn off” fuel in the parking lot and was 8 minutes late to my appointment. I was promptly notified that they had a 10 minute grace period so I was “lucky”. After an hour of waiting my van passed inspection and Rhoda came to pick me up. That was the last hurdle before the 3 ring circus at the airport.