Let's Do This Thing!

My mom and baby sister escorted us to the airport this evening. They took all 8 suitcases in my mom's car and I drove J's FJ cruiser full of me, the kids, and our backpacks.



We stopped in to see my Grandpa John at his "memory care" facility :( and then followed my mom to the airport. We had to pull over because Autumn was feeling car sick but we nipped it in the bud.

We parked and my mom and Lauren helped us drag in all our suitcases. Easton was a trooper with his carry on, the little two managed only their backpacks.

The ticketing agent was lovely and all our suitcases were underweight. One just barely made it, though. :/

After that we had to say our very tearful goodbyes. My mom knows there's no denying Berlin is where we're being led, but ot doesn't make this move any easier. As I've mentioned before, I've never lived more than an hour away from her in all my nearly 36 years. Tough. :'(

We made it through security, everyone was patient with us and super sweet, the "explosives specialist" coached Easton through sending all our things along through the xray machine. When it was our body's turn, Autumn went first and made a loud "whoop whoop" with a double fist pumping move. Definitely gave a few people smiles and chuckles.



Easton nearly lost his balance as the train to the terminal took a curve but a helpful man snagged him by the backpack and rescued him.

We first stopped for a bite to eat, not sure what dinner on the plane will entail but we grabbed a little Pizza Hut and pray that it won't upset their sensitive systems too much. We have been eating a lot more junk during this time of transition, but they're still not used to it.

Next stop was the potties where boys and girls took turns standing with the suitcases or in the restrooms.

Now we're sitting here at the gate, flight already delayed by half an hour but the devices are charged, our spirits are good.





We're gonna rock this! (But pray for us?) 

Please Be Seated

One of the things I was slightly "worried" about was seating on the airplane.  I was concerned they'd have us all far apart or that poor Easton would be off on his own somewhere next to some sketchy stranger.


British Airways doesn't let you choose seats (for free, anyway) until 24 hours before departure.  So, you can bet, at 8:45 tonight I was more than ready to get going on my seat preference choices.  My mom even set a timer for me. 


Well, 8:45 came and went.  And more important things were happening like our big goodbye with my sister, her partner, and my nephews.  So I wanted to do things like take pictures of all the cousins . . . only my boys were needing to put on pajamas because the superhero costumes they had been wearing were going home with their cousins.  But it was making me yell as if such wardrobe changes should've happened instantly and not off in the privacy of bedrooms or something. :( 


Once all the kids had said their goodbyes and my sister's family was heading to their car.  So I went too, but with firm instructions to my kids to 'stay inside'.  Well then Autumn goes, "I have an idea!" and starts heading to the door all underfoot like a blind dog or something.  I assume she's heading outside despite my explicit instructions not to, plus she's all up in my way because the path through the living room is completely crowded with many of our belongings we're still needing to move to store or sell.  So, in my haste to get things moving so I can get on with choosing my seats on the plane I yelled at her for not listening and picked her up and moved her back out of my way.  :(  Turns out the poor sweet thing just wanted to "tell them something in German" from the door.  Terrible, mean, Mommy.  I felt awful.  Still do.  She was crying and crying but eventually we could convince her to say a quiet "Auf Wiedersehen" from my hip.  She forgave me, but I still feel awful for my yelling.  It's a stressful time and I was certainly feeling pressure to get checked in online ASAP for the best choices of seats, but still....I shouldn't be yelling at my babies.  This is hard on them too!


Eventually I got online and got things squared away.  There was only one possible "4 in a row" combination for our first leg from Denver to London so I snatched it up.  The three kiddos will be on one side of an aisle and I'll be on the aisle directly across from them.
 


I also chose all our seats for the London to Berlin flight but, um, that ones not 24 hours out just yet so it didn't take.  I'll need to figure out just when that will occur tomorrow and get on that again. 

Not like there's not enough to do tomorrow already!  Night!

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch

In the spirit of God working everything out for us to head to Germany, we had 4 pets that we were needing to re-home.  And once again, God provided.

Initially we thought we were going to bring the cat with us.  Unlike the UK, it's no problem at all to bring pets into the country of Germany (as long as you don't have a layover in the UK).  Basically they just need a microchip and a rabies shot.  We thought with all the changes, keeping the kids from having to say goodbye to yet another loved one would help Berlin feel a little more like home. 


The kids were already going to have to get rid of their fish, which I felt terrible about, but the cat too?  Too much.  But then I got to thinking about logistics: I'd be travelling by myself with all 3 kids, all our suitcases and carry-ons . . . and a skittish cat?  With long white fur?  Who's been known to get explosive diarrhea in times of high stress? 


Then there were the issues once we arrived in Berlin as now we'd need to find a temporary place that would accept cats and then a long term place that would take her as well.  From some initial research, it sounds like Berlin is much more dog-friendly than it is cats.  In fact, I hear it's so dog friendly that sometimes they prefer dogs to kids!  Like, I've heard of restaurants that don't allow children but they do allow your dog! Ha! 


Anyway, as we were moving through May and trying to decide about whether Sugar was coming or not, I had a friend reach out to me about our cat Sugar.  She said she had a friend that was a single gal in Denver looking for a female companion for her adult male cat.  That sounded like a definite possibility but I wasn't ready to jump on it.  Sugar's certainly lives up to her name as a super sweet kitty.  I really didn't want to let her go.


Well also in there, perhaps May 23rd, I think, Autumn's pet fish died.  Bless her heart.  But there was suddenly one less pet to re-home. ;)  In talking about that on Facebook I had a friend from high school offer to let Sugar live with them. 


It was truly the perfect set- up.  This friend of mine is a vet tech!  She is already who I turned to when we first got Sugar and she had such a sensitive tummy.  She has a baby and two kitties already and said that Sugar could come live with them . . . but that we could visit her and get her back whenever we came back!  It was nearly a done deal as far as I was concerned. 


The kids had already come around to the idea of having to leave Sugar behind.  We talked about how it was selfish of us to make her that stressed with travelling and moving just so we could have her.  But this situation convinced them.  Autumn was glad to hear that "Baby Lainey" could live with Sugar for awhile and the boys were happy to know that, whenever we are ready, we can get her back.  Or at least visit.  I don't think that could've happened with any other situation.


Perhaps on a future trip home we'll have found a more permanent flat in Berlin that accepts cats (and children!) and we won't have as many suitcases and we can somehow more easily manage transporting Sugar over there?  Or we'll just get her back when we move home in however many years or whatever. 


So today, Sugar went to live with her new family. 


We left my mom's this morning to head back up to the house to get some more stuff done over there.  Autumn played with Sugar a final time:




The boys played more Xbox. ;)


And right around rush hour we headed down to her new home.  Sugar has never once been in the pet carrier we have.  So, Jason carried her out to the car saying his goodbyes (he had rehearsal for his last church worship service) and the kids, Sugar, and I headed out.  Sugar on the front seat.


Riding in the car makes her super nervous.  She stayed exactly where she was and shed like crazy.


We got into Baby Lainey's house and I kept Sugar on the floor with me.  Baby Lainey scooted and squealed around and poor Sugar was on high alert but we just sat there a bit and talked about things.  Eventually I went to the car to get her food and dishes and stuff and Sugar found a corner to hide in.  And she stayed there.  The home's two other cats were brought out to "meet" her and one cat was just fine and the other cat, a feral cat, hissed and hissed at her and everyone else.  I guess that's his norm, though, and eventually he'd warm up. 


Eventually it was time to say our final goodbyes.  The little two were definitely having more fun with Baby Lainey and weren't too troubled by their farewells.







But after Easton's, he went over to stand and stare out their front door for a bit and I was like, "Dude, chill, we're not leaving just yet" but then I noticed he was trying to keep us from noticing the 'emotion' in his eyes.  And that got me.  I teared all up.  :(  And then I felt rather stupid crying in front them: my high school friend and her husband who I only know from him being the manager of our Vitamin Cottage. But they were sweet and understanding of our saying goodbye to a member of our family . . . for now.


We know she's in good hands, so we left and got some groceries as we headed back over to Gramoo's for the night.

Anchors Aweigh!

We loaded up our shipping container today. 

Initially when we realized we'd be moving to Germany, we weren't quite sure the best way to do it.  J's company gave us a "removal fee" budget as part of their relocation package but we didn't have a clue as to what that covered.  Would that be 40 boxes?  Could we send our bikes? 

Eventually we looked into estimates for example: shipping 40 boxes and a crate of bikes would cost x amount of dollars . . . and then we looked into a shipping container which was only slightly more.  But we could send sooooo much more stuff.  And we wouldn't have to buy that stuff when we got over there!  Savings (especially because the company paid for the shipping) and they wouldn't have paid for all new "stuff". 


We still sold off quite a bit of things.  We also opted to store a few special things as well.  Both in a mini storage unit and then we'll store some things at my mom's and my grandma's. 


But the shipping container itself was 8' x 8' x 20' . . . basically a one car garage.  That's not too shabby.  The fun part was that we had two hours to load it in (or pay financial penalties) AND . . . best part:  it was 4.5 feet off the ground!  Without a ramp! 


As today was a Monday, everyone was at work.  It was just me and J on our own.  All 3 kids at home. 

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13

I can tell you it was absolutely not through our own strength that we were able to get that accomplished this morning.  2 hours?  4.5 feet off the ground?  Just me and J?  But we did it.  In exactly the 2 hour window. 

When I heard myself telling people what was in store it sounded ridiculous to my ears.  And clearly to theirs as well based on the looks on their faces.  But God saw us through . . . like soooo very many other things on this here journey, there is nothing but green light, green light, green light with Him clearly working behind the scenes. 


We did do our part:  we marked off the area of the container in our garage and then staged the area:

We kept the Xbox hooked up for the kids to keep them occupied and hopefully a little more out of the way. We picked up breakfast for them. And then we got to work!

We would carry something to the edge...hoist it up to our shoulders. One of us would then balance it from the ground while the other climbed up the step ladder, then that person would balance it while the other climbed the step ladder and then we'd locate the heavy item in the container. For two hours.

The guy that drove the truck just sat in his truck. Mostly. We heard him on his phone. He spot cleaned a few areas on the outside of the truck, used our bathroom, that sort of thing.

But we got it all loaded...this was with 2 minutes to spare:

And this was after the guy (who couldn't actually help) mentioned how much it's all gonna slide around so we moved the mattress for a better buffer and added a couple of bungies and hoped for the best.

He locked it up at 11:00 on the nose and drove it all away!

And so it's 37 day journey begins. First the truck is taking "her" to a train, then the train is taking her somewhere that makes very little sense (like L.A. when, um, I think we're heading east), then she'll get loaded onto a boat and begins her overseas voyage. Jason's got a guitar on there and I think this oversea journey has got him a little nervous. :)

The fun is going to be when we receive the container in Berlin. Our first temporary apartment (3 months) is only about 1000 square feet and it's already furnished. Where's it all gonna go!?!?

With our furniture either on it's way to Germany or sold off to fund buying new stuff in Berlin, we moved in with my mom starting tonight. Jason and I miss sleeping in a bed! The kids all had mattresses till this morning, at least, but Jason and I spent the previous two nights like this after selling our bed frame earlier this month and our mattresses on Saturday:


There is still a ton to do up at the house but I know it'll happen. I'm not even stressing about it. Well, not really. ;)

But there we go! A major hurdle out of the way and divine intervention getting us through once again!