Almost There!

Well, not almost to Dhaka, but almost to the end of Monterey.  More specifically, almost to the end of the "moving process".  Sure, we have to wait a while to get our stuff on the other end, but the stress associated with that is really minimal compared to the stress of packing it all up.  It's been a long time since we've done an international move, and the last time we did it, we were newly married and had no furniture.  This has definitely been a different sort of experience.

A new set of packers came on Friday and took away all of our Household Good items - that is our main shipment of stuff to Dhaka.  This shipment will go by boat, so it will take a while to get there.  There are many places where this is the case, but the shipping company will not authorize the release of our items here in the US until we are physically living in our permanent house in Dhaka.  So everybody keep your fingers crossed that we get into a permanent house right away, and they can coordinate shipping shortly after that.  While our items could be received in as few as 5-6 weeks, it could also take up to 4 months.  I've heard of cases of each.

We're living in lodging on post right now, but it's not too bad.  The family quarters actually have 2 bedrooms, a sitting room, a dining room, full kitchen, pack and play, high chair, etc.  Other than trying to keep ourselves fed while not overbuying, our challenges are few here.  Of course, we're still trying to clear out the old house, so each day involves some amount of time over there packing things up, throwing things away, and gathering items to donate.  I've found someone locally to take all of our food and toiletry items that we could not pack, and the part of me that dislikes wasting anything (mostly because I'm cheap) is pretty happy to be able to pass along the things we can't take.  Every box we bring back to lodging though makes me wonder how we're really going to fit it all in the cars to bring with us on our cross-country trek.

One last set of packers is due in later this week to pick up our Un-Accompanied Baggage and then we'll really be all set.  Can't wait to finally have all that stuff out of the house.  We're working now on getting boxes put together to ship our "essentials" in advance.  As long as we don't go over our UAB authorization, the government should reimburse us for this.  Here's hoping the numbers work in our favor!

Happy New Year, everyone!  I can't help buy wonder about all the new and exciting things 2012 holds for our family.