Packing out

It took 3 days to pack out. One day to box up and two days to load, because at 5:00 the 2nd day it was apparent that all of our things would not fit on one truck. I was concerned that we would go over our weight limit but the grand total of the first truck's weight was 11,000 pounds. The movers had to pull out the tailgate of the truck and strap 3 mattresses on. Then the next day they returned with another small truck to pick up the items at my office, probably about 600 pounds.

It was sad to see them pack up my Vespa. When will I see it again? One of the movers told me he had recently unpacked a family that had been overseas for 20 years. He said all their things were old, like from the 70's, and most of it just went to Goodwill.

I had already spent a week separating all of our things into three groups: what we are taking to training, what we are packing out because we may need it overseas at an unfurnished post, and what we are leaving in Anderson.

The movers did all the packing, which was great, but I had to keep track of what was going into each box so that I can request them by box number or item number later on. Every item has a number that goes on our inventory.

Tonight Anderson, Tomorrow the World

Tonight is my last night in Anderson. I will probably be up late packing and getting ready for this big adventure. I didn't expect to be so sad to leave because I have been so busy I did not really think about it much. I have been focused on our destination, instead of what we are leaving behind.

Last night they had a bon voyage party for us at church, complete with international food, flags of the world, sentimental speeches, tears & costumes from different countries. Lots of people got up to predict where we would go: Sierra Leone, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Belize, Japan, Mexico, and China. My parents and Chet's parents almost cried when they started talking about us leaving.

Our church family will be greatly missed. We are very close to so many of them after living here for 15 years for me and a lifetime for C. It is nice to feel like they will miss us too. I hope they remember to pray for us.

The plane, the plane, the plane

This weekend C. flew us down to Myrtle Beach for a combination business trip/family weekend. If you would have asked us two years ago if C. would be willing to give up the airplane we would have said "never in a million years." Of course that was pre-FS (before we were thinking about the Foreign Service). Now we are taking our last few trips before it gets sold.

You might notice that all the posts lately have been about our sacrifices to join the foreign service. We cannot stop thinking about it because C's parents and his brother and sister-in-law keep reminding us. They think we are totally out of our minds to even consider giving up what we have here to go to a place to-be-determined. The thing is, we are asking ourselves the same thing, but at the same time we are excited to be doing it. It is liberating. It is also scary. We are simplifying our lives but we are taking a big chance too.

We are rolling the dice and hoping for 7's: a good post, an easy adjustment for the children & C, lots of new friends, and interesting work.