Sometime between May and July

People have been asking perfectly reasonable questions, such as:

When are we planning to move?
Somewhere between May and July.
Yes, that is a three-month window.
No, we have not narrowed it down further.

Do I know where we are living?
Not quite.

Are we selling our house?
Uhhh… yes. Most likely.

Is the house ready to sell?
Absolutely not.

Are we selling our cars?
Yes, we’ve got to handle that too.
Have we started?
Nope.

Are we bringing a lot with us?
Not really.
I am committed to owning fewer things… primarily because I cannot figure out how to get them across the ocean.

At this point, the packing plan is:

• Clothes (some)
• Sentimental items (maybe)
• One Cutco knife that has survived our entire marriage and deserves dual citizenship

Everything else?
Spain will provide.

Are the boys signed up for summer camps?
That’s a work in progress.
Colin has one he is so excited to do in Boulder, but I also need to book at least a week (or more?) of camps in Spain so they can, you know, learn the language before being dropped into school.

Do we have a visa?
Chris is applying in person THIS WEEK!
We should know in a few weeks if he gets the green light.

Do the rest of us have visas?
Not yet.

Can Will play soccer?
This is a nightmare of a question.
The process to get him cleared to play is… intense.
We need both Chris and I to have approved visas, so I need to apply in person (as in, fly to Spain again) with more paperwork.
Then we need proof we are not moving to Spain for soccer (child trafficking laws, which is understandable).
And for the division he will play in, all of this needs to start in May or June. Yikes.

Are we seeing family before we move?
We absolutely want to prioritize visiting with family this summer.
Whether that happens before or after we move the majority of our life to Spain remains to be calculated using a highly advanced system of juggling multiple moving pieces of legislation at once.

Do I need to get a second FBI background check to confirm I haven’t become a criminal in the last 90 days?
Yes.
Because I did it “too early” in the process.
So now I get to repeat that, send it to Washington, D.C. to be apostilled, and then forward to Spain to be translated.
As one does.

Wait, do I actually even OWN my CPAP machine?
Unclear.
Is it rented? Can I bring it? Will it follow me across the ocean? I am a better human when I receive an adequate oxygen supply throughout the night.
This is currently on my “to find out” list.

Also on the “to find out” list:

• How to perfectly time ending all our utilities in the U.S. without accidentally living in a house with no water or Wi-Fi
• Whether I need a new phone number in Spain or if my current phone and I can stay together through this transition
• Can we coexist in a much smaller space? We will most likely be moving into 1500 sq. feet which is QUITE the change for us as we’ve always had huge houses in the US.
• How to find a mental health doctor so there are no gaps in my sanity during an international move
• When exactly to get Penny’s vet information updated, because this also has time sensitive document requirements 
• Whether I should panic-order a year’s supply of contacts
• If I’ve canceled all future dentist appointments
• How exactly we sell our cars while still needing them to drive Penny back to Virginia… and then somehow end up on a plane to Spain

We do, technically, have a few important things in motion: school, visas, a place to live, paperwork, life-altering decisions—but none of them are in what I would describe as a “completed” state.

And yet, despite the chaos (or maybe because of it), I feel oddly calm.

Because every big move we’ve made has a middle like this—messy, unclear, slightly unhinged. 

We are firmly in that phase.
The “Well, it’s too late to turn back now” phase.

We don’t know exactly when.
We don’t know exactly where.
We are wildly underprepared by most reasonable standards.

But I just have a feeling… it will all work out.

Mostly.

*photo is unrelated but so pretty: the tulips are blooming along Pearl Street in Boulder