The movers come in five days. In five days, all we will have left to us in Cairo better fit into the three suitcases we've held out of our shipments. Perhaps Lufthansa will check garbage bags?
For the last week, I've been working through the house, looking at every item in it and assigning it to a category: Baku, Virginia, home leave, or trash. After about two hours of this activity, making the crucial decision as Kathleen and Sophia twitter about me, firing self-evident and repetitive questions, more and more items end up in the last category. The more tired I am, the more items end up in the trash.
This is the part of the Foreign Service that I care for least, like the six weeks after a baby is born, the part that you do your best to forget, and cant' quite remember how difficult it is until you're in the middle of it. And I don't even have to pack the boxes myself.
The last time we moved I was about this pregnant, too, and I have to ask myself when I'm tired and crabby and just wish the children would leave me alone why I'm doing this again. But it only lasts so long, and then it will be done with until the next round, which I won't think about just like I don't think about having another baby while I'm pregnant with one.
Friends have asked me how I feel about leaving Cairo, and I honestly just feel tired. I'm too tired to care, which is probably good because otherwise I might feel sad for leaving my home for the last two years. But for right now, until those movers come Sunday morning, it's one step at a time, one drawer before the next, and one more yell swallowed in favor of a smile.
4 comments:
Moving is one of those things where there is no easy way. Even with movers.
And I guess they'd frown at putting the little darlings in a box, too? That would seem to decrease the questions, and you could put air holes in the sides.
Hang in there! It's hard with little guys. You are awesome to work so hard at being positive with them even when you are stretched.
I wish I was there to help you. That's one of my favorite things about the Foreign Service! (I also love those first six weeks after the baby is born. Yeah, I must be insane.) Good luck, hon! Oh, and we have a mutual friend. Life is so strange sometimes. Faith Meeker (I don't know her maiden name) was in the Bahamas a couple months ago and we helped them get back on their cruise ship after church. She just emailed me about looking for you and discovering that you and I are friends. "It's a small world after all. It's a small, small world."
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