5.on.the.fly

So today this happened... It's kind of a big thing, right? Got a lump in my throat when I saw them lying innocently in my mailbox.  The kids didn't care that much when we showed them, hardly gave them a glance.  For me, it was a stark reminder that we are very quickly approaching D-Day (for departure!). There is still so much to do and so much to plan my brain hurts from trying to figure it out.  I'm constantly concerned that whatever decision I make might be the wrong one and I feel myself settling in to just not make a decision.  Do we sell everything and start over there, or ship a container?  What's the cheapest way to do that? Do we do a lot of the legwork ourselves, or hire a full service company to handle everything? How do we find a reputable company? What kind of documents do we need for customs? Do they need to be apostilled too? When do we apply for a visa?  And holy cow - the hoops you have to jump through for this process.  Hiring a...

Well, I told you next time I would explain how we came to our decision. I suppose now would be that time.  Honestly, for me, it started as a joke. It's been probably about five years since it first came up; Tom and I were kidding around about what we were going to do when he retired after 25 years, and he jokingly said something similar to "Move to South America somewhere where I won't have to work and start a church".  We laughed it off and never thought about it again, or at least I did. Sometime later he brought it up again, and I laughed again...and after a few instances of this I panicked when I realized he was seriously wanting me to consider this. I refused for quite a while. Let's be honest: I'm an anxiety riddled introvert who is most comfortable in my home, in the town where i grew up, 10 minutes from my folks.  My only experiences living away from home include 4 years of college in North Carolina and 3 years of graduate school in Indiana (and that w...

Can you believe it?  I found this old blog site while searching for a place to create a new one.  Great memories looking back through these old posts.  So very much has changed though since my last post 7 years ago.  We were interested in starting a new blog because of major changes that are coming for our family -- in less than a year we will be moving from the east coast of Virginia to the Andes mountain range in Ecuador, South America. We want somewhere to document what we are thinking, feeling, going through as we prepare for this monumental change.  Since I already have this space, I suppose I'll just continue on where I left off 7 years ago. Let's play catch up on the time in the interim: - Sarah is now adulting 😃    She is 22 and is working as a firefighter/EMT in Powhatan, VA.  She will   not be going to Ecuador with us. - Paige is now 10.  She is amazing, creative, passionate, funny, outgoing, smart, and so much more. - E...