Some moving picts. . .

Everything we own is either in our suitcases or in a box, sitting in this giant orange sea container. Some people asked, so I thought I'd show you that this is how our belongings are being shipped to Brazil. The movers spent 3 days packing everything and then a few hours loading the truck on a Thursday morning. We said goodbye to our house and cars and then went to Des Moines to rent a car to drive to Kansas. Thanks again Cindy for driving us to the airport!

While I am so very thankful that we had movers pack our things, I am not looking forward to opening the few hundred boxes that will be unloaded at our new home! Our furniture was wrapped in thick brown paper, then wrapped in corregated cardboard, and then wrapped in really thick plastic wrap! I'm going to invest in a really sharp box opener when I get there!! I was amazed at how carefully the movers packed our things. Each item was inventoried and a sticker was placed on every item to ensure the safe arrival of our stuff. After watching the process and seeing box upon box upon box, I secretly hoped the entire sea container would fall off the ship:) If that really happens, I will erase this blog and pretend I never said such a thing! I'm sure I'll be thankful for many of our "things" once we move to a place where nothing is familiar! I'm writing this blog as I sit in a hotel in Cincinnati and I'm realizing that I already miss many familiar things, like my drawer full of sticky notes, my drawer of actual silverware (not cheap plastic stuff that breaks), my drawer of clean underwear (as opposed to having to double-check in case I didn't throw the old ones in the dirty laundry - which is in the closet of our hotel room), my own blowdryer, sitting in the sun on my porch, running on the open roads of Wapello county (instead of a treadmill), and most of all, my bed!! However, I am thankful for twice-daily Starbucks Americanos, no obligations (other than learning Portugues and feeding my family), not having to prepare a meal every night, fun emails from friends that I normally wouldn't talk to but once a week, a giant water fountain 2 blocks away (which Emma calls the water mountain), someone else making my bed and changing the sheets more than twice a month, someone else cleaning my bathroom, and coming home after class to a nice clean "home" that I had nothing to do with:) We'll take both the good and the not-so-good right now!