This week we have picked up the pace considerably when it comes to getting ready for our enormous journey. Most notably, we arranged our visas, paid for them and booked the all important interview. The interview is to be held on Thursday, 16 January. We're extremely excited.
Additionally, we booked the removalists for Friday, 24 January. We hope to hold a garage sale to sell our smaller items, such as disused baby goods, for the Saturday immediately following and will be putting larger items, such as white goods and furniture on Gumtree/ eBay.
Right now, all the cupboards in the house are either empty or housing items that are still in daily use, such as clothing.
The children's suitcase is packed!
We have booked for the first 2 of our allotted 6 free council pick ups of 2 cubic metres of rubbish.
Our exit clean is booked for Thursday, 30 January and we're planning to get the carpets cleaned the following day.
We have ordered 3 quotes for the animals to travel.
Which brings us to our main stress.
Right now, we have not secured housing and we need to give two weeks notice for the animals to fly at the same time as us, making Monday, 20 January the cut off. Most companies pick up the animal wherever it is, and offer short term boarding (although they'd probably "board" with their grandma) and, if needed, complete the 48 hour health check, but this is not our only problem.
We have discovered that if the plane is grounded at an unscheduled airport, or for an extended period, the animals are stuck on the plane, or worse, the tarmac, regardless of conditions. This poses an enormous risk to our furbabies as America is currently experiencing a particularly harsh winter. We have actually, in our research, heard numerous stories of animals dying, or being returned in need of urgent medical care when scheduling mishaps of this kind have happened. It is making us very nervous and upset.
We are currently seeking alternatives. At the moment, and my heart is breaking just thinking of it, we are considering shipping them in spring or autumn, to avoid harsh weather conditions. We are in an extremely fortunate position in that they have lots of people who love them, and will care for them as their own, but we will miss them, and no decision on their welfare will be taken lightly. But right now, the idea of them pining for us for a few months is strongly favourable to them stuck on a freezing tarmac for hours.
This is a sad and distressing hurdle we had not expected to meet, but we are so happy and excited for everything else that is going on, and the tremendous pace with which we are moving forward.
Lily asks daily when we are going to "Merry-ka" and it's so exciting to be able to answer her in weeks!
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