60 Days Out (or thereabouts)
Lately, when asked “How preparations are going?” or "Are you all packed up?”, our typical response has been “It’s been a game of ‘Hurry Up and Wait’”. Various aspects of the move and of our lives have moved at different speeds - we are making great headway on some things, still in a holding pattern with others:
Our Jobs
M officially started her new role at the beginning of April. Most of her time between now and deployment will be spent doing countless hours of training, orientation, and remote work that doesn’t require as much daily interaction with her SZ team. I will continue to work at my current organization until the end of June, though I’m also beginning to lay some groundwork for independent consulting work once we get settled in SZ.
The House
Back in March, we decided that we wanted to rent (instead of sell) our current home. This was in part because we’re quite fond of this home and, in the event that we return to Virginia after a few years, we’d have it to return back to. After researching and speaking to several different property management companies, we settled with one that we connected with and felt comfortable entrusting our home with in our absence.
The only issue was we were about two months too early in posting our home to attract the July move-in market. So, we waited for nearly two months before finally getting our home photographed and listed last week. Despite concerns over the size of our house and its rural and remote location, the great news is we immediately received interest for showing and are very close to securing a multi-year rental agreement! Aside from being able to check off one of the larger to-do items on our list, we’re also eager to begin sorting our things for the moving company (and no longer have to keep the house in pristine, showing condition).
Speaking of our things...
Our Stuff
For insurance and liability reasons, we’ve been instructed that we should not pack our belongings in advance and leave it to the moving company in the days just before we move out. As M and I are both organizers and planners at heart, this is a genuine source of consternation and mental anguish. While we impatiently wait to get our rental agreement locked in, we are left with making mental piles of things that need to be grouped together for the movers, creating lists of special packing instructions or labels that will be needed to make sure the right items go in cargo freight vs. air freight vs. check-in luggage, etc. Come to our house today and you’d never be able to tell that we’re moving halfway around the world in two months.
The Kids
We’ve intentionally tried to keep this aspect of our family life as undisturbed as possible. We've wanted the kids to have normal day-to-day routines, and to not feel like the move is impacting their lives already. After-school activities, weekend sports, the occasional birthday party...it will all continue until we deploy. Both of them are very aware of the move, and know when it’s going to happen. Thankfully, they’ve been incredibly mature about it, even going so far as to excitedly tell all their friends and teachers. We’ve had parents of their friends and teachers from previous years (that we weren’t aware even knew about the move) come up to ask us questions.
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Despite all the periods of waiting thus far, things are inevitably going to get busy, a bit stressful, and flat out frenetic at times. If nothing else, we will begin to have more to update you all on. Thanks for following us on this journey!
