The Logistics of Moving

So the Baggetts are moving again. To Fort Smith, Arkansas, of all places! For those of you keeping score, this will be #11, and it should culminate the week of our 11th anniversary. Sigh....

Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled to be leaving this apartment, and I'm excited about the prospects for the future. It's exciting to be heading to an area I have only driven through before now. But the details are overwhelming, and no matter how many times we do this, I never get used to the chaos that always ensues or the weeks that it takes before a new place feels like home.

You would think that after 10 moves (not counting auxiliary moves or "half moves" following the sale of houses) that we would have this down to a fine science. Well, this move looks to be our most challenging one yet. For one thing, we now have two children. We may be able to actually drive the U-Haul to Arkansas with only one child, but that one will be just under 10 months old, and we will have to drive back across the state a couple of days later to pick up the other one. Plus, there's the matter of packing and cleaning around two young children who are too small to help but big enough to add to the mess.

If that wasn't enough, David has decided that now is the time for him to take a trip to Virginia to see his cousins, a trip which will require at least 4 days. On top of that, there's the matter of missing a number of paychecks. We have some money in savings as a result of recently selling one of our cars, but I had sure hoped to use more of that money to pay off debt. Sigh again....

But after 10 moves, I have learned (and will need to remind myself) that somehow things always get done, somehow the move always gets made, somehow we do settle into a new normal, and somehow we eventually feel at home in our new place. If I click my heels together, can I fast forward to that time and place?