Progress

We have visas in our passports, and we have those passports in our possession.

We have notified our landlord that we are leaving, and begun the checking out process.

We have purchased and wrapped all of our Christmas presents, and I'm making progress on all of our Christmas cookies.  A small (portable) Christmas tree has been purchased, decorated with disposable ornaments, and stationed beautifully in the corner of the living room.

We are about halfway through with a complete inventory of our house.

I have nearly finished the girls' applications to school in Caracas.

Not only that, but the laundry is done and the dishes are all washed.  Now, the bathroom...

Less Than 3 Weeks

Dave has less than 3 weeks until his Spanish exam.

He's getting nervous.

Should he pass, life will kick into high gear and we will immediately begin packing out the house.
Should he fail, life will relax a bit.  We will take a longer vacation for Christmas and we will move a month or two later.
We are rooting for him to pass, leading to a smoother transition for everyone (and, sadly, a rather stressful Christmas season).

Prayers are welcome.

And with that, we realized that we've got a lot of food in this house.  Assuming that he passes, we have less than 3 weeks of preparing our own meals in this kitchen.  As it turns out, we have about a month's worth of food in our fridge, freezer and pantry.  To use it all up, we've planned out our meals for the entire month.  Excluding milk, fruit and yogurt, our grocery list is only 3 items for the rest of the year!

Deliver Us From Evil

I'm finding it hard to concentrate lately. Urgent things keep popping into my head, which need to be transferred to lists or accomplished immediately.  I keep leaving phone calls unreturned.  I keep finding wet laundry in the washing machine.  I really ought to be studying Spanish right now, but I've just got to finish a few things at the computer first.

Yesterday in church, I had this same trouble focusing.  During the prayers, my mind raced and my heart only stretched toward God for moments at a time.  I tried to rein myself in by the second half of the Lord's prayer, when something struck me.  Here's the line I was on...

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil...

That but struck me as significant.  I don't think that but is simply a transition word from one thought to the next.  It suddenly occurred to me that deliver us from evil is in a direct juxtaposition with lead us not into temptation.

I always read deliver us from evil as, in my own parlance, please keep us safe another day.  But I don't think that's what we're talking about here.  If this follows directly after my plea to keep me away from temptation, then it must mean please keep me from doing evil things.

This shook me up a bit, and continued my lack of focus through the sermon.  I can't tell you what the preacher meant to communicate to me yesterday, but here's what I got:

Simon Peter was a real character, very dynamic.  He was the very first person to correctly identify Jesus as the Christ, and Jesus praised him highly for that.  And then in the very next paragraph, when Jesus explains His plans to die for our sins, Peter tells Him to dial it all down quite a bit before someone gets hurt.  Well, Jesus gets pretty mad and yells at poor Peter.  And at some point here, Peter learns that serving God is not all wine-out-of-water and finding-lots-of-fish.  Serving this Christ he chose to follow will take him down a very dangerous road.

When He taught us to pray in the Lord's prayer, I don't think Christ instructed us to pray for our own safety.  I don't think He makes any promises about that.  We are taught to pray against doing evil, and being tempted by evil.  And I can do that.  But if y'all wouldn't mind, maybe you could pray for the safety of our family?

List #4 - Timeline

By now you've probably noticed - I love lists.

Not only is there the spreadsheet of lists in Microsoft Excel which I've been systematically explaining to you.  There's also the notebook of lists, with prices at different stores and items prohibited from shipments per diem per city.  And then there's also the shopping list for Thanksgiving, and the shopping list for Target, and the Thanksgiving agenda (because if I don't write it down, it won't all be done on time!)

And this brings me to the most important list of all.  The Timeline.

The Timeline began as a To Do List.  And then I noticed that I was only adding lines to the list, and never rereading the previously added objectives.  And so I rearranged my list.  If you're one who loves lists, you know that two List Operations are particularly satisfying - Crossing Off of lists and Rearranging lists.

My list is now arranged by things to do BEFORE THANKSGIVING, things to do over THANKSGIVING WEEKEND, things to do BEFORE DEC. 1, things to do Before packout and things to do After packout.  This makes the whole project much more manageable.  It means there are only 7 things I need to do before Thanksgiving.  Of course, not included on that list are the things on my Thanksgiving agenda, sitting here underneath my right elbow.

This may call for a new list.

List #3 - Consumables

We've been shopping a lot lately, and asking a lot of questions lately.  Space is becoming at a premium in our basement with the bags of paper towels and boxes of clothes, everything sorted out by their final destination.  I'm sending more questions on a daily basis, and receiving answers every day.  I'm feeling more in control and more comfortable with this move every day.

But still overwhelming is List #3 - Consumables.  Shops in Caracas have trouble keeping basic items on the shelves - things like milk and meat, coffee and toilet paper can disappear from the grocery shelves for days or weeks at a time.  This is because Hugo Chavez has some crazy policies.  He has instituted price controls on basic goods - goods like milk and meat, coffee and toilet paper.  Stores can not sell them for higher than the prices set by the government.  Unfortunately, the price is set so low that most producers can not afford to produce them, either.  This is a vast oversimplification of the problem, I'm sure.  But it begins to explain why we get to bring our groceries with us.

A consumables shipment is yet another destination for our household goods.  Some of our household will travel by air, arriving a 3-4 after they leave America (now, Venezuela will not allow them to leave America until we have been there for 3-4 weeks, so that's a bummer).  Some of our household will go into storage, where we will not see them again for years and years.  Some of our household will ride on the slow boat, arriving in Caracas months after we have been there.  This is the furniture and the boxes of books and the things that make our home, but which we can live without (we will have a furnished apartment).  The consumables shipment should travel on the slowboat as well, but it follows different rules.  The consumables shipment contains consumable items, not only food but also things like wrapping paper and baby wipes.  Its crummy that we will have such trouble shopping in Caracas, but the consumables shipment will be a real blessing.

At this point, though, planning consumables leaves me feeling overwhelmed.  First, we have to decide what to bring.  Which groceries do we need over a two year period?  How quickly do we consume a whole bottle of olive oil? 

Next, we have to figure out how long each item will last.  It may be 6 months before we see our consumables, so quick expiration dates are out.  And groceries keep surprising me with their short expiration dates.  Natural peanut butter should not sit on the shelf for more than a few months, although peanut butter with sugar added can last for over a year.  Olive oil and honey can last nearly indefinitely, but jellies and jams are questionable.  Luckily, toiletries and paper products will easily last the test of time, and so a good portion of my shopping list is without thought.  Well, except for the diapers.  How many diapers will we need?  How many Pull-Ups?  Presumably, Annika will be potty-trained within the next 6-9 months, but what about sleeping through the night?  And what about wipes?

I'd better stop - this is becoming overwhelming.

List #2 - Shopping

Every move involves shopping.  But in this move, we would prefer to do our shopping before we leave rather than after we arrive.  This is true for a number of reasons, ranging from choice and personal preference to cost.  America tends to be a pretty cheap place to live;  stainless steel soap dishes may not be available in Caracas, and they will certainly be costly.

There are some things we know that we will need.  For instance, we currently have one bathroom.  That means one soap dish, one bath mat and one shower curtain.  I believe that in Caracas, we will have three bathrooms.

Also, Annika is outgrowing her crib.  In Caracas, she will sleep on a twin bed just like her sisters.  She needs bedding.

But beyond the basic moving needs, we also have some stuff we know we will miss.  Wrapping paper is uncommon in most of the world.  So, we're going to bring 2 years worth of it.  Apparently, kids toys and books are pricey in Venezuela, so we are going to stock up on gifts for birthday presents.

The girls will wear uniforms at their new school, so we need to buy navy skirts.  The list goes on, although it is pleasantly short.  The newest addition to the list?  We believe that neither our DVD player nor our television will work in Venezuela.  Those will hurt... and be awfully fun!

List #1 - Questions

As of today, we plan to arrive in Venezuela in 55 days.  Two months feels like an appropriate amount of time to plan an international move, so I don't feel much stress.  But at the same time, with 55 days and counting, time must be used wisely and I have begun to plan.

I alluded earlier to making lists.  I've made quite a few.  I've got a spreadsheet full of lists.  The first list is of questions.  When I'm brushing my teeth, I suddenly think up a question about the move. When I'm at the grocery store, I wonder if I should pack apple juice.   When I'm vacuuming, I wonder if I'll have any carpet.

So far, I have 33 questions.  The largest number of them surround our home.  The embassy will choose our housing for us, so we will not need to seek out a home after we arrive.  Our first night in Caracas will likely be spent at our own address.  Our home will be furnished, and so our shipment can be full of rugs and dishes and toys.  But how many bathroom rugs will I need in this new home?  And will we need blankets on the beds?

Other questions are about our lifestyle.  I'd love information on any international churches.  Is there a women's Bible Study?  If there's not, should I bring the materials to start one?  And what about the school - will the kids bring their lunches and need snacks?  We have a consumables shipment for Venezuela - that means that we can ship a certain allotment of groceries on top of our regular household items - and I have no doubt that granola bars and fruit snacks are cheaper at Safeway than in the commissary.  Do we bring our bikes?  What about our cell phones?

I'll spare you the rest of the list.  Happily, the embassy has someone on staff to answer all of my questions.  She (or he) is the Community Liason Officer (CLO), and a large part of her job is to help me move in to Venezuela.  She'll arrange our orientation and hook us up with both a professional sponsor and a social sponsor.  The professional sponsor will meet us at the airport when we arrive.  The social sponsor, I believe, will show us the grocery store and the playgrounds and hopefully have kids ready to play with our girls.  Each of these 3 are ready to answer any and all of our questions (and probably had many of the same questions before they arrived).  I've been nervous to begin asking questions, because I don't want to look crazy with my deluge of requests for information.  But I have been well assured that the CLO took this job because she loves helping folks through their move - and I'll admit, I think it'd be a fun job.  So she can look forward to regular emails and plenty of questions from over the next 55 days.  I have a feeling my list of questions will grow, rather than shrink.

My most pressing question this week:
How do I find the time to plan a move, study Spanish, and care for my children and myself?

I worry she won't have an answer to that one.