Preparations

We are now truly feeling the gravity of our new lives in the Foreign Service. We are so close we are accelerating and spinning almost out of control. In less than two weeks we will be living in Washington D.C. preparing for our lives abroad.

The house amazingly sold in 24 hours (pending closing) which was an amazing relief. K8 finally got the official travel orders so we now have the movers scheduled for pack up and our trips from St. Paul planned. K8 and Ozzi will be flying out while Q and I will be driving out over 2 days. That way we will have a car while in D.C. and get a few vital things (toys) there just in case the UAB is delayed. The other benefit, I hope, is a chance for Q to see a little more of the country we will be representing over seas.

K8, being the amazing woman she is, has managed to take care of pretty much all the prearations while I, being the stay at home dad, have occupied the boys. Which, when you need to maintain a staged home can actually be quite the task. I've also really been doing everything I can to prepare Q for this major change. At 4 years old, a big move can be unbelievably hard. But, at this point anyway, Q is genuinely very excited about the move. I think most of the credit goes to sitting down with him at the computer and going over all the aspects of his new life. Together, we've looked at our new apartment building, checked out what animals are at the National Zoo, and taken a virtual walk along The Mall via Google Maps Street View. We've even gone over our Road Trip, plotted out on Google Maps.


View Road Trip in a larger map

Things really do seem to be finally coming together with this new beginning in close sight. There is still plenty to get done, including what may be the most daunting task of all, the countless goodbyes we have yet to say.

Lists

For the majority of my life there was really only one list that occupied my mind. My "Things to do before I die" list.

• Somehow convince a beautiful and intelligent woman to fall in love with me. Check.
• Reproduce with said woman. Check x 2.
• Jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Check.
• Swim with sharks. Check.
• Climb Kilimanjaro. Waiting for the boys to be old enough to go with.
• Learn to surf. Been pretty hard here in Minnesota.
• Make at least one other person's life significantly better. One of these days.
• Be seen as a hero in the eyes of my children. Ongoing struggle.
• Have a lifestyle that justifies owning my own tuxedo. I'm a ways off from this one yet.
  
• See the world... all of it. A bit ambitious I know, but it's worth a try.

The last one is encroaching the realm of possibility now as we ready ourselves for our new lives abroad. In getting ready though, I find myself needing many new lists just to keep from being totally overwhelmed (I'm still overwhelmed, just not totally). Right now most of these lists have to do with getting the house ready to sell. from lists of possible realtors to the daily to do lists of all the little things that will hopefully make our house more attractive to a buyer. Next to those lists are the lists of what to put in storage, what to ship to D.C., and what to get rid of. Once in D.C. we will be confronted with the list of open posts around the world on which K8 will have to bid. Once we find out our first post we then start down the list of things we need to buy to better equip us for life at that post. Probably a lot of toilet paper, transformers, adapters, heavy duty surge protectors, and of course diapers... lots of diapers.

All the while I've been working on a list of website and blogs that will help us prepare for the Foreign Service and a list of websites and blogs that will help us keep in touch and maintain our Minnesotan. Those lists should appear to the right and should be expanding as time passes.

Last Minute Minnesota - The Walker

In addition to the obvious high pressure of having to get everything sold, packed up, shipped out, and what have you in the next month and a half, I also feel compelled to take in as much of Minnesota as we can before we leave the state that has been home my entire life. We've already got weekends set aside for trips to the lake, my childhood hometown, and, I'm hoping, a quick jaunt up to the North Shore.

Today I took a break from setting up for our garage sale by taking the boys to The Walker... probably for the last time. If you followed my previous blog you'll know how much we love The Walker. Q, my 4 year old, could practically give tours there he's so familiar with the place. Of course, we'll soon have The Mall, The Smithsonian, The National Gallery, and the rest of the seemingly endless list of things to do and see in D.C., but, I'm still gonna miss that cherry and spoon.

ON TO ADVENTURE

On Saturday May 16th K8 and I had a date night planned. We had a babysitter coming to watch the boys so we could go out for sushi, K8 was finally willing to venture beyond the California Roll, then a slow walk around Lake of the Isles like we used to pre-kids. Before the babysitter arrived K8 happened to check her email and find an offer of employment from the United States Department of State.

K8's pursuit of a position in the Foreign Service started over a year ago as one of those things that you say "Why not? It doesn't hurt to try. It's not like I would actually get the job anyway." Well it looks like she got the job and we are in for the biggest change of our lives. While we bravely sampled uncooked creatures of the sea at Fuji-Ya we discussed all the changes and possibilities, fears and hopes, and the vast chasm of what we didn't know.

As we talked Q's voice began to ring louder and louder in my head. "On to adventure!", he would announce as he jumped off various surfaces. "On to adventure!", he proclaimed as he raced around the block on his big wheel. "On to adventure.", I replied to K8's questioning eyes filled with excitement and fear. "On to adventure!" Nothing like committing to upending your family's future over octopus, river eel, and Sake-tinis.

Since then there has been much research and daydreaming with small spurts of planning. By late July we will be living in Washington D.C. By mid August we will know where in the great wide world our government will be sending us. Until then it's not really worth stressing out over where we will be posted. We've got enough to occupy us with trying to sell our house and planning the move to DC.

Now that we've had some time to really come to terms with what all this means to us and the boys, we are bursting with excitement... excitement and fear. Because leaving a life in a city you love filled with the best friends you could ever ask for, giving up close proximity to the family that is more important than you could ever express to them, and abandoning a standard of living provided by a sky-rocketing career that K8 worked so hard and long to achieve is scary, scary as fucking hell. But, as the saying goes, "Don't regret fear. Fear regret."

so,

ON TO ADVENTURE!