Panic sets in...

You know things are not going well when you find yourself walking around the house like a chicken with its head cut off not accomplishing anything. That's where we are.


I know it's just a move and we have moved many times before, including across the ocean, so why are we having such a hard time coming to grips with this situation? Well, for starters, this is not a normal move. We know we are going to Virginia but we don't know for how long. 10 weeks to 10 months on average, we are told. We don't know what country we'll ultimately be posted to. How do you plan for that? (We find out where we are going in late April - stay tuned to a separate post on that.)


We've lived in FL for more than 7 years now. This is the longest we've lived at the same address since we got married 13 years ago. Prior to moving to FL, we moved every year, sometimes even more than once a year. We were ready to settle down, buy a home, start a family. We did all that and now we are going back to the nomadic lifestyle, which is exciting but a tad more complicated than before we had the house and the kid.


We are also being moved (as opposed to moving ourselves), which is terrific but we've never done it and are not sure how to go about it. We are not supposed to pack our stuff. The movers need to do that because of insurance. So what are we supposed to do? 

The Foreign Service sent us the handy-dandy "It's your move" book but reading it made me want to scream. We are supposed to separate all of our crap into 4 piles (I can't stand piles!): stuff we are going to move ourselves with the two cars, unattended baggage (UAB) or stuff that we'll use while in Virginia, household effects (HHE) that we are going to take to our first post country, and things that we are not taking to post but that we'd like to store in the US while we are overseas.


We were hoping our furniture would be sold by now. We had some success with craigslist last weekend but the really big things (sofa, armchairs, our two bed frames, a big desk) are still here and getting in the way. On the other hand some of our storage furniture sold and stuff's just on the floor, which drives me nuts!


Everyone's asking us if we are ready for the move. I am not sure I know what ready looks like. It's a very disconcerting feeling. Paul and I lay in bed at night trying to map it all out. I wish I had a magic wand, so I could wave it and be moved and situated in our apartment in Virginia. 

Speaking of the apartment, we got that sight unseen. Ditto for Nia's new school. I don't do well with sight unseens. I have to know what I am getting myself into. Which I think is the root of my discomfort with this situation. It's completely out of our control and I think I might be a control freak. And if you think about it, there are few things scarier than an out-of-control control freak. 


I gotta go find something I can control - husband, kid, cats - anything will do. Wish me luck!