Packing and Thinking About Home

"Home" by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes

It's a strange feeling to be living in the home where you grew up and to long for "home."  It's also a strange feeling to long for home when you don't have a physical place to call "home."  In less than a week we will be traveling across an ocean to find a new home, or at least a place we will call that for the next two years.  We have moved so many times in the last almost ten years, home has never been the same place for more than two years.  But we kind of like it that way.  No matter where we go, as long as I'm with these guys, I'm home.

Picture courtesy of the lovely Courtney Jones

I started packing last night and was flooded with a lot of emotions...the first one was definitely panic!  We get two checked bags, one carry-on and one personal item each...so between me, Matt and K that's six suitcases/garment bags, three backpacks, a diaper bag, computer bag, and one duffle bag.  We are bringing as much as we can on the plane because we have a limited number of pounds we can ship over for free (1000).  Fortunately, since we are flying in business class, our weight limit per bag is 70lbs instead of 50lbs, so that's nice.

 Mom and Dad's dog Zoe decided to help by staring at me and then looking for pieces of food Kellan may have dropped earlier.

I've packed all of my clothes and K's clothes, except for the ones we will be wearing the next few days.  But there are so many random things to consider - Kellan's toys and books, sheets (fun fact: German beds are not the same size as American beds - the largest they sell is a queen.  Since we are shipping our beds over, we also have to ship bed linens, because they won't sell any over there that will fit our beds), sippy cups, our books, Matt's study materials for training, vitamins/toiletries/medications, the list goes on...

Right now, I'm not sure how everything is going to fit, but I will find out soon enough!