Now that a date is set for my departure, it feels too real and I'm not ready to leave yet. Eight weeks from today I'll be taking off.
Not to mention the fact that when I get home I have to give birth to and start taking care of a baby. Don't get me wrong, we're thrilled about that. It's just not the way we'd originally planned on spending our summer vacation and some days we haven't fully adjusted to that yet.
Now that we have a date set, we can't procrastinate too much longer on the departure preparations. We have to decide what goes into my suitcases, what gets forwarded from here to India, what goes back into storage, and what comes with Mike later on in his suitcases.
We have to get the cat her rabies vaccination and health certificate and pray that the airlines will let her on the plane with me, because by the time Mike flies home it will probably be too warm for excess baggage pets. (She's too big for in-cabin, and she's a huge pain; I wouldn't want her in the cabin with me.)
I have to gather up my detritus of medical information, from all the different doctors and nurses I've seen here, scan and or copy it onto standard 8 1/2 x 11 paper (my papers from the local doctors are all different sizes) and forward it all to my doctor at home. And get this, she won't accept emailed PDFs! I tried to tell her that never in the history of this country has a fax successfully been sent, even though they have several fax machines and try real hard, but her office refuses to give me an email address. I'll have to find one of those online PDF-to-fax services. (But really, who doesn't email PDFs these days? Or at least make an exception every now and then? And isn't a PDF scan better quality than a printed out faxed version of a PDF scan? I'd think that you'd want the best quality you can get for things like ultrasound images.)
Like with every move, I know all this stuff will get taken care of somehow. I always get to the point where I resign myself to knowing that no matter how crazy it gets, the stuff will get packed up and sent somewhere, I have plane tickets (miraculously for this early in the process), and I have a place to live when I get to my destination. I know by now that no move is perfect so I like to aim low, in the region of not disastrous.
6 comments:
Oh, ((honey)).
From personal experience, let me offer you the following:
I wasn't ready for and acclimated to the idea of having a baby until my first was a toddler. And I wasn't ready for and acclimated to the idea of having a toddler until he was a pre-schooler. Etc. Each part takes us by surprise and we're not ready for it until it's over! Or at least that's how it was for me. :)
So you're having the baby - in the US?
You have a GREAT attitude!! With low expectations, you are bound to NOT be disappointed!!
goodness! Good luck to you. That's ridiculous about the PDFs. This is a US doctor? They should make an exception given your circumstances..
But I like your zen attitude!
Oh I know what you mean about the faxes here in Bujumbura, I once spent half a day trying to send one and then realized that it's a lost cause. Weird that the doctor will not accept PDFs.
Daring, yes the baby will be born in the U.S. The due date is the date we were originally planning to leave here, so we just adjusted the home leave by a little bit.
Delhi and BFiles, we always have infuriating moves and I can't see how my being huge and pregnant will make this one go any smoother. I have no choice but to accept it. The only thing I'm really worried about is getting the cat on the plane, but we have backup plans just in case.
And yes, it's a U.S. doctor that won't accept an email. I chose the doctor for the small-town homey feel of her practice (she's associated with the same hospital I was born in and came recommended by friends), not imagining that anyone or anyplace in the U.S. could possibly be behind Burundi in the telecommunications field.
The one thing I've had to resign myself to in this crazy lifestyle is that nothing is every easy... or ever works out exactly how I have planned.
Congrats on getting your tix so early! Best of luck as you transition out of Burundi and onto your new life in India!
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