3 weeks

It’s official…we have our move date. After waiting for months to get things pinned down, it seems that a lot has happened in this past week. With a potential government shutdown looming, several things got pushed through quickly for us. While on family vacation this past week, we started getting phone calls and emails insisting that we finalize things. And so we did.

A major advance for us is that we now have our plane tickets. We head out in 3 weeks. We will fly into Amsterdam for a 2 hour layover before making our way into Dar. Each leg is about 9.5 hours. It’s a relief to finally have a date but also a little overwhelming.

We have also started the packing process. We had our premove survey this past week. Our moving company sent a representative to take inventory of our house. It’s amazing how much stuff you really have when you start making lists of each little thing. We are now putting stickers on everything indicating whether we want it to be shipped by sea or air, or if it is going into long-term storage. The moving company should contact us in the next few days to schedule when they are coming to pack everything for us. In the meantime, we are organizing each room to (hopefully) help the packing process go smoother.

We are very excited that we will be joined on this journey by Audra. Audra is completing her freshman year at Georgia Tech. She will travel with us and stay for a month, helping out with the kids while she is there. We hope to show her some fun and exciting stuff while she is with us. I am especially glad to have an extra set of hands during the flights and initial days after our arrival.

We are still in process of purchasing a car. We are looking at buying one in Japan and having it shipped to us. It’s a little strange to shop for a car online, knowing that we won’t see it until it arrives in Dar.

Our pups are almost ready to go as well. They spent a day at the vet getting all of their shots and also getting microchips (a requirement for entry into Tanzania). We now are shopping for appropriate travel crates for them. Their last step will be having our vet complete an International Health Certificate for them but that can’t be done until 72 hours before we leave.

Deep breath….and the countdown begins.