Lest you think I've vanished...

... It's just that we're in the countdown mayhem of the final 4 days in the U.S.

I will not bore you with everything we're juggling.

I hope to have a chance to catch my breath and reflect a little on this process.

But for now, one more doctor's visit this morning to show my healing nose to the surgeon, one more chance for a little team meeting with Russells as they're here now and we're on our way out, and one more chance for a little date this afternoon with my parents...

Between all these good things today, PACKING (with some panic thrown in.)

We fly on Friday night.

Talk again soon :-)

xx

Thoughts Amid the Rubble

When Heather was little she wore red sparkly shoes.

She loved them.

She would wear garish clashing socks with them with much enthusiasm and joy.

Today I pick through socks at the bottom of drawers and scraps of paper on the bedside table. Mate-less socks, receipts not filed away properly, drawings from Heather, books I intend to read, a card from Dana.... they clutter these two bedrooms on the ground floor at Mom and Dad's.

I work my way though it all, slowly, heavily, not very efficiently. I wonder to myself how we amass such a lot of mess in 8 months of living here. It's time to clear it out, pack up what's needed, try to put these rooms back in order before we leave.

The little piles, the scraps of this and that, they jiggle memories loose from the corners of my mind. These goodbye notes from Heather's friends... My first grade class in Sweden that I left early as we moved to England...

I ponder the past and wonder at the future as I sort and pack these traces of our lives, sighing as I look for a place to save Heather's tiny red shoes.

And so it Begins... Again

"I'm going to start packing now" Byron announced on his way out the door. He was using his serious "I"m warning you" voice.
"Congratulations!" I said in my cheeky voice. I like to counter "Serious Boy" with "Cheeky Girl."

He was on his way out for his Monday morning coffee with Scott but he was announcing none-too-subtly that from here on out we are in packing mode. That means that we are not stuffing our junk in the back of closests anymore. No, we are now officially either throwing out what is not going with us, or finding the appropriate piece of luggage and placing it inside. Actually, the luggage part is probably still a week or so off, but we are at least in the sorting/pre-packing phase now.

Can I tell you how much I hate packing? Have I mentioned it before?

Someone recently asked me how long we plan to be in Tanzania. With as many international moves as I have notched on my suitcases I answered somewhat wearily. "I'm not planning to move again any time soon so unless there is a Major Act of God, we're in Tanzania till kingdom come."

Ah, the fun of it all!

Oh My Word!

Look at all this stuff!

Nelly moved away with five big bags and a guitar. Looks like we've got a little more than that!

The container comes tomorrow and we'll be only too pleased to see this stuff loaded.

We've got a household's worth of furnishings and a big garage's worth of tools. I pack libraries of books for home ed while Byron packs things like chainsaws and generators.

Well, hats off to The Borden Boys who have worked non-stop for three weeks. Now we just need a home in Africa to un-pack it all in :-)

Pack Master

Thursday night we got home close to eleven after dinner out with friends. Though we had been packing all day, Byron's pack fever was running high and he went straight into hauling things out to the bins down on the street. He was carrying out our bedside table to the designated give-away spot by the dumpster where we found it years ago in the first place.

But I was in the living room with Nelly. There she was with her belongings strewn from one end of the room to the other, a look of desperation on her face. Jenelle has been here three years. But Thursday night was her final one in Portugal. She's in the States now, getting ready for the next venture in following God.

There was too much stuff to fit into her bags. Moving with what you can take on a plane is always a challenge.

"I need a strategy," she kind of whimpered.

I looked at the bits and pieces of her material life and said, "You need Pack Master!"

So Byron's fervor was focused onto Nelly's goods and the fact that they needed to be on a plane in a few short hours. For the next couple of hours he dazzled Jenelle with his energy and brilliance as the king of all packers.

We took Miss Nelly to the plane Friday morning at dawn. The contents of her world were cleverly squeezed into Byron's amazing carry-all black duffel bags. He asked the man at the BA counter to please wave one bag and though the guy was a bit taken aback by this bold request, he did allow one big honker to go free.

Nelly and her stuff got to Baltimore safe and sound. She wrote to say her parents were in awe of the pack job.

I wasn't surprised at all. The boy is no stranger to this task. When it comes to packing, no one else even comes close.

Kids' Films and Comfort Food

We're all at what feels like the thin edge of our strength now in this packing up thing. I think that if the container came tomorrow we'd be happy to leave behind whatever we haven't yet packed. But the container comes next Tuesday and we will likely be working right up till the last minute.

We've gotten rid of so much, but it's still more than we've moved before. When Byron and I left California 100 years ago, oh no, it was only 22 years ago.... Anyway, when we left there we didn't own much. When we packed up in Africa in 2000, we didn't own much that was worth keeping. Now it makes more sense to take what we already have than to try to re-purchase it in Tanzania.

But we're all weary of this work.

Two things have helped. Heather has been watching The Sandlot. Sandlot is one of our family's very favorite films, and we're not even baseball fans! Just hearing the dialogue as the rest of us pack in different parts of the house has been keeping us laughing. We all ran into the sitting room to watch the scene when Squints kisses the very hot lifeguard. "This magic moment, when your lips are close to mine!" Oh my word. We love this film.

And then there's PB&J. Heather's friend asked me to make her a peanut butter and jam sandwich today. It looked so good when I got it done that I made one for myself, though to be honest, I wasn't really hungry. I can't think of the last time I ate peanut butter with jam. It's divine. It made me happy to eat it on that fresh whole wheat bread I picked up at the bakery today. Heavenly.

Little joys that keep us sane. I'm thankful for these.