Eight days until the packers show up.

As E, who was tense about the move and all the details to attend to, begins to relax a little bit, I find myself getting freaked out and shifting into high gear.

I wake in the night with anxiety over issues I can’t identify. I walk through the house with my stomach churning, jotting down my thoughts and watching the list of tasks to accomplish before the packers arrive next week get longer, not shorter . The better organized we are on this end, the easier the next three months will be.

Here’s how an international move is different than a local one. The movers will come next week and pack out almost all our stuff. Almost being the key word. A thousand pounds of household goods can be left behind for our second shipment, which will leave Belgium in late February.

When the first shipment leaves next week, we’ll be left in our house with a bare bones selection of borrowed furniture plus a  thousand pounds of our own household goods—which has to include clothing, dishes, flatware, basic cookware, sheets, pillows, blankets, linens, school supplies, and any tools and cleaning supplies we’ll need to get the house in shape for its final inspection.

A thousand pounds goes fast. You have to be selective and anticipate your needs. From experience I know It’s the little things that drive you nuts—reaching for a paperclip, rubber band, emery board, Ziploc bag, pencil eraser, lens cleaner, envelope, or a pair of scissors and realizing you don’t have them. Or longing desperately for an afghan to curl up under at the end of the day or a favorite sweater, jacket, or pair of shoes that was too bulky to be packed in a suitcase and was already shipped.

It will be EIGHT weeks before we catch our plane to Virginia and move into our house there. Eight weeks of living out of a suitcase, without a car. So I have to think big and think small and make smart choices, not just in terms of being practical but also in staying comfortable from now until mid-March.

Wish me luck!

January 8, 2008