Taking Flight

October 6, 2016

Journal Entry – October 3, 2016

3 months have passed since we decided to move to New Zealand. October 3, 2016 has arrived and we are currently in flight to our new adventure. As my exhausted husband sleeps and my children happily chip away at hours of unlimited electronics, I calculate all that it took to get us to this point.

Decluttering and Storage

8 Car Loads to Goodwill (the shopping problem became obvious)
20 Trips to the trash dump (hoarding issues come to mind)
20 Costco Bins for storage (my never ending love for this store is apparent)
10 other random bins for storage (yep, I am definitely a hoarder)
1 attic filled and organized (pretty impressive in light of the newly discovered hoarding tendency)
1 air-conditioned closet locked (my Encyclopedia Britannica is sheltered from avid researchers)
25 nerf guns donated to friends (our neighborhood is now safe)

Miscellaneous

1 sold car
1 borrowed car by family
1 furnished house rented for 1 year
1 puppy happily moved in with our nanny, and by happy I mean he was skipping. (no we could not take the 120lb Rhodesian Ridgeback Dog on a 24hr flight and 10 days of quarantine each way, Not OK!)

1000 Supporting Team Members

Family members from near and far came together, pushed passed their sadness, and supported us all the way
Friends came to help celebrate, cheer us on, pack, organize, declutter, and send us off
My co-workers showed me a level of support that makes me ecstatic to call Charlotte Pediatric Clinic my home.
John’s work partners and staff were so encouraging and understanding that he really got to appreciate the heart and soul of Ortho Carolina
Our patients and their families made time to see us, to wish us well, to comment on line, and to encourage us to keep pushing on.