It’s finally happening

I am posting this note the night before we leave the country.

We’re jumping out of our skins excited. We’re sad. We’re nervous. Forget about sleeping tonight!

The past few days have been a blur:

• Thursday morning, I took the kids to get their final “Healthy to Fly” papers, and then had to FedEx some documents to the pet transport people.
• Thursday afternoon, Wendy and Aleya arrived for their last visit. We got to spend some quality time, and we prepared the last dinner at our home.
• Friday morning, we packed up the bed, the patio furniture, my Grandfather’s chair, and a bunch of odds and ends, and the ladies headed back to Washington.
• Friday afternoon, the Brandts were by – Ryan and Nicole are in college with apartments, so they had a chance to go through whatever remained to stock their kitchens.
• We then gathered up Keiko and headed over to our friends Jim & Cynthia’s. These guys have become very dear friends over the last few years, and they more or less insisted that we stay our final few nights with them. Since we no longer have a bed, it seemed like a good idea! Because they have two cats, we decided to let Lexie have a night by herself.
• Saturday morning, we were back at the house bright and early to meet the clean-out service. Two guys and a large truck … they took everything left in the house. Emptied pantries, cleared out closets, broke down, and/or removed any remaining furniture with the exception of the desk in my office (our realtor bought that from me, and he’s going to collect it after we move – he has a key).
• We then had to turn the pets over to the transport service. Due to last-minute changes by the airlines, they had to fly out of Seattle, so we had to do this a day earlier than originally expected. The driver showed up with his van, the critters got in their crates, and we said goodbye. It was an emotional scene, but we’ll see them on the other side in a couple of weeks.
• Then, a super important event – Covid tests! We expected to have to do screening in Portugal, but the airline called and informed us that Kristie in particular needed to have proof of no virus 72 hours or less before the flight or she wouldn’t be allowed in the country. Me, they could test when we landed in Portugal because I’m a citizen … If Kristie’s citizenship had come through by now, or if we had obtained her residency permit in advance (like I asked my lawyer about but was told to wait … grrr …) …
  
  This turned out to be a drama – we had reservations at a clinic for the tests, but when we arrived they told us they wouldn’t be able to do it since tests were a very scarce commodity. I honestly lost it, Kristie was crying … Anyways, long story short, they agreed to do the tests for us It is an unpleasant test, but we both came back with negative results, and we’re good to fly.
• Sunday, we handed off the Mazda to a neighbor who owns a used car lot, picked up a rental car, and made one last stop at the house to check for any last-second forgotten items. We then rolled the trash containers to the curb, dropped the vacuum cleaner off at Goodwill, and headed back to the Leonards’ for our last evening.

So – we’ve seen most of our closest friends in the last few weeks and had a chance to say goodbye for now. We’ve wrapped up more than 13 years at the townhouse and are almost possession-less – we each have two suitcases and a carry-on, and that’s it until we start stocking the apartment in Porto.

There’s definitely an element of bittersweet in all this. We are leaving behind friends and family, places we’ve lived and loved, and headed off into the wild unknown.

But this adventure has been a long time in the making, and we’re excited for the next steps – although we can hardly believe that it’s really, finally here.

Next episode: On the ground in Portugal!