Little (BIG) Things About Moving Overseas
Fridays are my round up day for the week — what went well, what made me laugh or cry or brought joy, what I listened to or read that I loved…All this goodness goes out in my Weekly Loves email so if your not on the list yet, make sure to sign up!
But this post is for some of the real and raw I’m in right now, and what I did this morning to flip the narrative I’ve been stuck in. There’s a lot to get through in the next 2-3 months for us and sometimes it feels overwhelming and sad, and other times it’s exciting and wonderful. We are moving our family of 6 + our dog, Mabel, to Germany in just 58 days. Yikes! That’s so soon and is coming faster than I’m ever ready for.
Since it’s a military move, you probably assume that things just come together and we arrive and it’s all easy breezy minus a few sad goodbyes and boring days while the professional movers are here.
But this move is proving to be our most complicated and difficult yet, and we’ve been doing this a long time (over 18 years now). A lot has been going wrong. It’s been one bump in the road after another, and seeming ant hills that are turning into actual mountains. It feels like I’m carefully lining up dominoes so that they will all fall in a perfect sequential pattern, but one, and then two and then three are just completely out of line and messing up the whole thing.
Here are just a few examples:
Our family has to be cleared medically before we can receive our official orders to move. We cannot schedule our movers or get our no-fee passports, or schedule our car shipment until this medical clearance goes through. Unfortunately, right now there is a 1500 application back log for medical clearances which means people are not able to move when they’re supposed to. On the surface it sounds like no big deal, but imagine planning to close on selling a home, or ending a lease and then at the last minute you learn you can’t leave just yet. Where do you live? Where do you go? What if your landlord cannot extend your lease? (We have the best landlord we’ve ever had right now so I am very grateful for his flexibility and understanding with us…it hasn’t always been the case.)
Another example. We have a dog and this our first overseas move with her. Shipping a pet is not something the military covers or makes arrangements for so I have been getting quotes from multiple pet shippers and trying to find out all the things I need to do to get Mabel, our sheepadoodle, to Germany when we arrive. She is too big to ride in the cabin and since we are slated to move right when the summer temperatures may begin, we have to worry about the heat embargo where they don’t fly any animals until temps drop. Mabel has to be seen by a vet within 10 days of travel, and have an original stamped, wet signature document overnighted from the USDA before she leaves in order for her to be accepted in the new country. Add in the right size travel kennel to international specifications, zip ties for the door, the right food and water dishes, right kennel pad, food taped to the top…so many, SO many details! There’s hoops to jump through for her once we get to Germany too.
Are you up for one more? We are shipping our second car on our own dime because right now the used car market in Germany is nuts. High prices and high mileage cars are the norm. Shipping a car isn’t cheap but it will be worth it financially and for the convenience on arrival for sure. Ideally we’d love to have a car right when we hit the ground in Germany, but nothing works quite that smoothly. Right now we are replacing a windshield from a recent chip/crack, and we are scheduling to have snow tires put on because snow tires are required in Germany by law. We need to have the car detailed inside and out and underneath and have 1/4 tank of gas or less when it is picked up to be taken to port, 13 hours away. We will overnight documents to customs who will then mail these back to us (we still need to get a forwarding address in Germany). Once the car is shipped, it takes a couple weeks to arrive at the port in Germany, and then 2-3 weeks to then be delivered to us. We anticipate having a car within a few weeks of arriving so it will be a lot on foot and public transit until then. Our family car that the military is shipping will likely arrive 6-8 weeks later.
These are just 3 aspect of our move and really just the surface of the complexity of each of these issues. We have three different moving shipments that are going at different times and to different places or by different transport. That’s a whole other story. Plus, normal life is carrying on at full speed! There’s final dental cleanings, and some major dental work on the schedule, braces coming off last minute, my son’s missionary service paperwork and interviews to complete before we leave and planning his high school graduation and party, getting education summaries for each of my kids to pass on to their next schools, ending cell phone, internet and utilities contracts, taking the international driver license prep and test before we leave country, setting up Google Voice accounts to have American phone numbers…
My mind is currently looking a lot like my laptop browser with a million tabs open. These are all little things but they add up to full capacity for me!
So in the midst of all this overwhelm and time on hold on the phone the other day, I knew I needed change something. I pulled out a sheet of scratch paper and wrote, “What’s Good,” and here are some things that filled me with gratitude, peace, and hope for moving forward.
I’ve learned so much about international pet shipping that I know the right things to ask now and I feel like we really did find the best option for Mabel and saved $$$$ too.
My Rodan + Fields business continues to grow which has meant meaningful interactions with amazing clients (something that brings me joy) and an income to meet all the extra costs of moving internationally.
We’ve been laughing a lot more, me and the kids and Matt. We all handle stress differently. I’ve had my days of frustration and felt emotionally depleted, which is good because I can recognize and help my kids move through these same feelings.
The kids and I are having more meaningful time together in the scriptures every morning. It’s easier to see the hand of God in your life when you are in the position of knowing just how dependent you are on His help and hand to guide you.
All these little things actually have a big impact. It’s never one small detail that puts me over the edge. It’s the sum of it all. The weight. It’s hard to say goodbye again. It’s hard to not want to just choose the easier path and take a stateside assignment. It’s normal to long for what’s comfortable and what you’re used to.
But there’s great things ahead. I trust that.
Love,
Dayna
