Part 12 - Moving Day

Four weeks down. Last Thursday I got the keys to our apartment and did a final walkthrough. We didn’t notice every little thing that could be done to make the place tiptop, but more on that later. It’s liveable.

Friday morning, Addie woke up to maggots creeping under the door into our unit. Gross! Bubbas got out for his typical morning walk, Addie had a disheveled morning of tidying, and then was off to work. I had a disheveled morning of “I can’t work today, I have to move all our stuff, and buy the stuff we need to get our spot set up.”

It was 30 hours from the time we got our keys to Addie sleeping in the new place complete with sheets and towels. We’ll figure out the rest as we go. Her parents built a house while she was in the womb. My parents moved when I was six months old, with multiple kids.

Families do things to make their lives work. You make your money, you place your bets. You solve one problem at a time, the best you can, then move on to the next. You solve enough problems, you’ll have a healthy human that can take of themselves. ¹

There’s certainly an air of desperation in the new place. This has to work. Addie’s got one more week of work, before she starts her pre-delivery leave. We’ve cleared the hurdles so far that need to be cleared. Now we get to settle in and enjoy a little break before baby arrives.

It’s a wild experience we’re surfing. We know money is coming to support our lives here, but we’re currently draining our pre-existing checking accounts. We know there’s time to solve the problems that need solved, but they’re stacking up and causing stress. We know we’re excited to welcome baby, but we don’t have any idea how to be parents.

And that’s a typical experience. Nobody knows quite how to do this. Solve one problem, then the next. If you solve enough problems, you’ll have a human who can take of itself in any potential future. That’s what we want for our little being. So we have to model it. We get to model it.

I’m particularly proud of one thing about how we managed in our first tiny little apartment abroad. Well, two things. First, we didn’t bicker much. We supported each other and made the most of a spot while we got ready to move to the next one. Second, we made it a little cozier for each of the first ten days or so. There were lots of little moves. The couch turned, the bags moved, the tables moved.

They stocked the place with three barstools, two metal chairs that couldn’t collapse, a metal table, a couch with a large ottoman, and a round coffee table. That’s a lot of seats. Over the course of our month there, the barstools slowly migrated towards the bed, acting as hooks for bags and nighstand-like tables. The bags migrated off the walls and blocked out the TV that wasn’t turned on a single time. The large suitcase and its smaller companion clam-shelled open and then slid under the bed as a dresser.

We figured out the appliances, and played with Bubbas in the garden. We landed, worked, and settled. And now we get to do it again.