Extensive moves such as a Transatlantic move are a series of stress-inducing steps.  The first step is actually getting accepted for the assignment. Second is the nail-biting medical screening.  This one itself was a little bit more for us than most people due to the ADHD in our family but we passed.  We then had to fill out a mountain (and I am talking Kilimanjaro not some puny Blue Ridge hill) of paperwork of which the processor promptly lost half of it. This step has been increasingly frustrating as we have been recently contacted that he has misplaced some of it again.  In addition,  it has taken 6 tries to get our car processing paperwork straight, and we filled out the Italian visa paperwork too early, a lost afternoon if I ever saw one, only to be told when we went to do it again that we should have filled it out sooner. Grrrr!

 After that it was navigating the perilous waters of signing up and scheduling for our move.  Military OCONUS (overseas moves) are schedule in three parts; the first is for your stuff you can't or don't want to take with you.  This gets placed in storage until you return stateside.  The second is what is called unaccompanied baggage or express shipment.  This is stuff you will hopefully receive prior the rest of your stuff. This is what the guys are packing up for us today.  It is stuff such as what has sat on my dining room table for a week......

The final shipment is your household goods.  This is all the rest of your stuff and takes approximately 3 months to get to you.  That will happen for us in approximately 2 weeks.  We will lose all of the medicines, cleaning supplies, and food that we have so our neighbors are scoring big time.  We will then move to a hotel for 2 nights and then onto our temporary lodging for about a month until heading to Disney World with my sister and her husband to zone out until driving back up to Newark for 2 days and flying out.  All in all a draining experience that I hope is worth all of the trouble.  We have faith that it is.

After the shipment you still have to process visas, move to temporary housing (which in our circumstance is multiple places), vacation, and then head out.  As you can see, a series of steps.  At the beginning I kept looking at the whole picture but that was giving me enough stress for a coronary so I began to focus on only the step right in front of me.  That has made the whole thing infinitely more manageable.  It has helped that Israel is helping out with this move as well.  Moving is not usually his cup of tea but he saw me floundering on my own and threw me several life rafts.  He has assisted in many of the errands, has ordered me a cleaner to process the house (see earlier post), and offered the vacation time.  It was the vacation that was the sweetest.  His wallet normally has a combination lock on it and for this he even gave me the code.  I can't wait until vacation is the next step.  Ohhhhhhhh vacation.......

The vacation was our choice but a great choice if  I do say so myself.  You see, in addition to all of the steps and the stress that they have been causing us adults, the move has been hard for our  young 'uns.  We did not anticipate how hard.  We did not anticipate the clinginess, the tears, the nightmares, and fear of sleeping alone.  It was surprising but both children have been affected equally.  I thought I was home safe with the boy since he was so excited about this in the beginning but he has had just as many problems as his sister.  It is a lot to take in; a foreign country when you start high school.  We have tried to work with him and be patient.  Fortunately, his behavior has not changed much for the worse.  He just needs more reassurance, a lot more.  She is the same but she is more concerned about her friends.  She is going to miss the kids in her preschool (even though they are out for the summer) and her playground pals and is concerned about family member "finding her".  She thinks if she moves across the water that her family won't be able to find her.  We have explained to her that family will always "find" us but it is still concern.  All of this emotional turbulence is what gave birth to the idea of the Disney trip despite the fact that it added onto the adult stress quotient exponentially.  We felt they needed something to be excited about and it worked.  Last night, we made a countdown chain together and it has taken some of the focus off the move and onto vacation with their favorite aunt and uncle, Heather & Jeff.

It seems to be exactly what they needed.  We are taking our time getting down to Orlando, stopping on the way at my Mom's house, and really trying to enjoy some time together before the move.  Raphael starts high school this fall and will pull farther away from us once he makes friends so this was a good excuse to spend some quality time together.  It all really is the blink of an eye.

All in all, this has been a major upheaval for my family and a lot more work and stress than I could ever begin to anticipate but as I close my eyes I dream that I am sitting back, drinking a glass of wine, and looking out over the Mediterranean and it is all totally worth it.