Dear Diary, we are moving to Belgium!

Dear Diary, I know it's been a long time (10 years, to be exact) since I last wrote, but I'm back!

SO much has happened, and I'm sure I'll get into all that in time, but I have to let you know that we are moving to Belgium!!!

You know how when you make a wish for something that's a really big wish and would be life changing and it actually happens, it doesn't feel real at first? That's exactly the stage I'm in right now. 

With all my years as a military spouse and all the moves I've made, this will be the first military overseas move, which will require a lot of planning. 

We were originally given a report date of August 10th, however, yesterday those orders were changed, and we now need to be there by June 10th, so things need to happen even quicker!

The first step is arranging for the packing and moving of our HHG (household goods). We will be moving during peak PCS (permanent change of station) season for the military, so having the movers' dates secured will make things seem more real and I'll be able to relax a bit. Once picked up, our things will take approximately 2 months to arrive in Belgium. 

We will be shipping our cars as well. We will send one of our cars two months out, so we will have it when we arrive. The first vehicle, the military pays the shipping costs. We will use our second car until we are ready to leave and then have that one shipped at our expense, which will still be less than buying a new vehicle in Belgium. 

As far as travel dates, June is not ideal for making a move since John graduates High School and receives an AA in Pre-Nursing. The plan is to be here for his High School graduation (June 5th) and his dad will come for his college graduation (June 20th) and then get him settled at college. We will leave in-between those dates since Arturo needs to sign-in at his new duty station by June 10th. 

Moving with 3 small dogs, which we want all in-cabin with us, will be our biggest challenge for this move. We won't be able to fly with the rotator (Military plane) because they only allow 2 pets per family for travel. This means we will need to fly commercial, paid by the military. We want our 3 dogs in-cabin with us since they all have "issues" and we would feel safer that way. (1 is a senior dog, 1 has horrible anxiety, and 1 is under 10lbs) The military will assign us flights, but we are going to ask for Delta since they are the only airline that allows up to 4 pets per flight and they also fly nonstop to Europe, which would make it ideal. I'm going to stay optimistic about this.

 

There is so much to do and to look forward to and I'll be telling you about all of it!