Moving Day by Hart

We've been wanting to travel overseas for a long time now - maybe 10 years or more. When the opportunity arose a couple of months ago for Justin to take a job in Treviso, Italy, we jumped at the chance. Of course, all the bureaucracy of a large company made the process slow & stressful. Finally, last Wednesday afternoon (3 days ago) we got the OK to join him. Since then, I've gotten about 30 emails from different departments, all with information & requiring responses of some sort or the other. We got plane tickets. A car has been reserved for us. Justin is moving from a hotel into a furnished apartment where we will live until we find more permanent housing. We've been contacted about cultural training. We've been contacted about language training. We found spots for the kids in an international school. We packed up our essentials & items that might be needed through the winter. And today, the movers came.

The movers arrived at 8 this morning & I was relieved to see that all our stuff fit in one air shipment container. We aren't taking much, but it still seems silly shipping kids' clothes & toys all the way to Italy. That seems less wasteful than buying new stuff when we arrive, though. Luckily, most things can stay right where they are at home until we return.

For those of you who are just now learning about our trip, the plan is to stay in Italy for the duration of Justin's current job which should be about 6-9 months. It is possible we will return sooner than that, but hopefully not! We would love to keep in touch through this blog, on Facebook, through email, or via Skype. I will miss all my friends & family, but I think it will be most challenging for Ellie & Liam. I can already tell they are feeling sad about leaving.

Tomorrow I fly with the kids (ALONE!!!). Maybe I'll post about that next time, from Italy.

Until then, arrivederci!