Pack-Out

I've avoided blogging about our pack-out mostly because we've been counting down to these dates for months now. It's been on my mind too much to want to write about. My to-do lists started as far back as February when I started going through all the closets and drawers to find items to give or throw away. Then came the lists for what stuff should go in what shipment. I'm a list kind of gal but I have a friend who made a flow chart diagram to use as her decision making authority for packing. It was pretty impressive.

It's not quite as simple as letting the moving company come in on the day of pack-out and just box it all up. For our family, it takes quite a bit of forethought into what we will need at different points during the next 8 months. There is three separate shipments.

1. Our large shipment contains the majority of our household and all the furniture. This shipment takes multiple days to pack and move. Everything going into this shipment will be loaded onto crates that will go by sea to a storage facility and then again by sea to a port in Africa. When we arrive in Addis Ababa in December 2011 this shipment will be allowed to start it's final voyage by air to Ethiopa for custom's approval. We should expect to see our things again sometime in February or March of 2012, aproximately 2-3 months after we arrive to our new home in Addis Ababa. It's a long time to be without our things. It's especially tough to settle into a new home while still waiting for everything to arrive.

2. Our small air freight shipment is 700 lbs. and will travel by air to the United States and wait to be received at our temporary housing in August 2011. This shipment must contain items that we will need for the final week in Manila when our large shipment has already been packed as well as things that we want to have for our four months of living in the States (August-December 2011). The tricky thing is that we will also have a 700 lb air freight shipment that will be packed in DC right before we move to Ethiopia. The items that we bring back to the States in this air freight shipment will also likely have to be in the air freight shipment to Africa. Thus, I have to think ahead to what we will need in our air freight shipment for Africa; which will get us through those 2 months in our new home in Addis Ababa before our large household shipment arrives. Throw in the fact that we are expecting a new baby in October and any of our baby things I want to use for the first four months of our third child's life, need to be in this 700 lb air freight shipment. Needless to say, we will be borrowing lots of things from friends and family while we are at home.

3. Our accompanied air baggage is essentially our luggage and items we can take on the airplane with us back to the States. These will be the only items we will have for the next 9 weeks until we get our air freight in August. The other tough thing is that all our important paper work and documents or valuables all have to come with us on the airplane. Most of it in our carry-on luggage. You can't trust putting your original Social Security cards and birth certificates in your checked luggage. Other random things that will go in our luggage is our address books, title to the car, shot records, valuable jewelry, the dog's health records. Everything important. The list goes on and on. Amazingly, we are planning to fit everyone's clothes and personal items in 5 suitcases and two small bags. One devoted to toys, books, fancy ball gowns, princess wands, sparkly shoes, night lights, white noise machines, and all of Bella's 37 must-have bedtime friends. Blankie, lovie, nana, and Bop Bop will go in on of our 4 carry-ons. Don't laugh when I tell you that we'll also be bringing two car seats a stroller and the dog on the plane with us too. I'm already scheming how to cut a hole in a pull-up diaper to put on Lucy's butt. Flying with the girls is tough enough, you better believe I will not be cleaning up after our dog too.

This past week we had movers in our house packing and moving our large sea shipment Tuesday through Thursday. They threatened to push some of the work into Friday but I pushed back some. Instead of the four packers we had on Tuesday and Wednesday; 9 guys arrived on Thursday to finish the job. We had roughly 6,400 lbs of stuff. I was most sad to see our mattress packed up knowing Justin and I won't sleep in our own bed again until 2012. I was also sad to see the toys go because so many of those things the girls use on a daily basis. I guess it will be like Christmas again when it all gets unpacked in Africa.
I thought I'd be more wistful about all of our things getting put in boxes and loaded onto crates to weather a long boat ride over the ocean. In the end I was relieved to see it all gone. After months preparing for pack-out it was finally over.

Tomorrow our air freight gets packed. This is the ugly pile of stuff that we will see again in August. When we separated out what went into our suitcases we have very little air freight. Probably half our allowable limit. This bodes well for the inevitable shopping and stuff-accumulation that will happen during the 6 months we are in the States.

We're ready to head home now. The house feels like a shell of our home now.

the end is near

Our apartment is beginning to give me flash backs of our tiny little 950 sq ft townhouse in Arlington before we moved to the Philippines three years ago. Piles are starting, colorful sticky-notes are tacked on things, and empty diaper boxes are getting filled with winter clothes and baby items that I didn't think I'd have to see for a while longer. Even the suitcases are getting filled with maternity clothes and stuff. Lots and lots of lists are being made.
The movers come to survey the house next Wednesday and then ultimately pack up all our possessions on May 24th! It's exciting and stressful all at the same time. If you would have asked me 6 months ago how I felt about moving back to the States I would have gotten teary eyed and wistful about leaving the Philippines and our apartment we've called home for the past 3 years. I would have told you that I was dreading repatriating back to the US and all the logistics that come with that. I would have told you that I was sad to rip my children away from the only place they've ever called home.

I'm glad that I've had the past 6 months to prepare and mentally get ready to return home. I'm happy to say that I'm ready to say goodbye to Manila. I'm ready to have our next adventure in Africa, but mostly ready to have 6 months in America with our family and friends to familiarize ourselves with American life again as well as introduce our children to the country they come from.

I feel almost as if Manila is pushing us out; getting under my skin and grating on my nerves more and more. The oily layer of pollution I found covering our wedding quilt that hangs on the wall above our bed helped solidify my readiness to leave. That, and Addie's teacher contracting Dengue fever, the mystery bug bites on Bella's butt, and the horrendous smell of dried fish (the apartment unit below us re-fries for EVERY MEAL) that waifs up through the exhaust fan and permeates my home and churns my pregnant belly. These things all have me excited to breath in some fresh American air because if that's what's been collecting on the quilt above my bed, Lord knows what's going in my lungs all night.

I'm ready to stop scanning the kitchen and bathroom floors for cockroaches whenever I enter the room. I'm ready for incandescent light bulbs, flushing my toilet paper down the toilet, and cheap Tampons (although I could argue that I've had more months pregnant in the Philippines than not). I'm ready for courteous drivers and traffic laws that are enforced, blue skies, grassy spaces, and other Americans to chat with while in line at the grocery store.On the other hand, I'm very sad to leave Cora and Garry. They are like family. Yaya has been spoiling the girls a little and I see an extra fervor in her imaginary play with them. She's teary eyed when we mention how close the end is coming. Our two children are not the first kids she's cared for like they were her own and had to say goodbye to. She's debating whether or not to find a family without children next time to spare herself the heartbreak of kissing the child one last time as we head for the other side of the world, possibly never to see them again. She's a Saint for giving herself to families like she does and I honestly think there will be children that will miss out on her love if she chooses not to work with kids again. Right now I am sad to leave these people we love, not the Philippines.
Addie is struggling with the idea that she's saying goodbye to her friends. Many of which are headed to other countries or back to the States themselves. She's very concerned about her toys getting packed up and sent to Africa. She had lots of questions about what will come with us (Lucy? Of course.) and what will stay (that nasty bag of old used wooden kebab skewers I found in the pantry that Cora saved for God knows what reason? Of course not) and how everything will find us again. When I explained that a boat will take our things to our new home in Africa she processed that information and then determined that many of our things could not possibly fit on a boat. A boat the size of our apartment building my darling. A humongous boat! You will not leave anything important behind sweet girl.Pregnancy tends to focus my attention forward (about 40 weeks forward to be exact). It's been good timing to help me not dwell on the past few years and all that we will miss about our home here but instead get excited about the future for our growing family and all the new things we will experience. We cannot wait to welcome a new little one into our family and then promptly initiate him or her properly by forcing the impossible eyes-open infant passport photo right before hopping on a flight around the world! Cause that's the way we roll.