Yesterday, six months after we first got word that we’re moving to Italy, our orders arrived! Orders make everything official, so having it is like having a golden ticket, or as my husband likes to call it, our “magic paper,” since the government is now backing our move. I’m just happy we can “officially” start the next phase of planning—we were at a standstill until we had those orders in our hands.
Since we felt like we’re a little behind—we leave America in less than two months—our first order of business is to ship our car out so it will (hopefully) be waiting for us when we arrive. I’m still paying it off, so I had to ask my loan provider permission for it to leave the country. As soon as that letter arrives, we’ll drive my car up to Atlanta and say “bon voyage” as it travels overseas via sea freight.
Then we have to wait for the movers to get back in touch with our moving dates. If you’re not familiar with an OCONUS PCS (I sure wasn’t!) the movers will come three separate times for three different shipments:
- Household goods: This includes anything and everything we want to take with us. This shipment will likely take a good two months to get there, so it will arrive after us.
- Unaccompanied baggage: We can send 1,000 pounds worth of things we’d like to arrive sooner rather than later. This is where we’ll ship our necessities: an air mattress, a couple pots and pans, towels, pillows, sheets, a rug or two, my husband’s motorcycle, a computer etc. Ideally, our unaccompanied baggage will get to Italy a little bit faster than our household goods, so we can have more to live out of than our suitcases.
- Non-temporary storage: This is there things get tricky. Anything that we don’t want to take with us, but don’t necessarily want to sell, can be stored away at this base’s location for the duration of our stay overseas. We’re still working on what items we’ll have stored.
This may sound silly, but since this is my first PCS, getting orders is really exciting! I’ve been so wrapped up in everything we have to do before we leave, that I keep forgetting where we’re going! Tonight I’m taking a break from worrying and thinking about all we need to do before the movers whisk our stuff away, and I’m throwing a celebratory dinner complete with bruschetta, garlic bread, a big bowl of pasta, a good bottle of wine, and finishing dinner with tiramisu. Or we may just order pizza, because let’s face it, that’s a heck of a lot easier than making a complete Italian dinner these days.
Do you ever take a break in the midst of moving to celebrate where you’re going?
photo credit by: Funkdooby
