4 months and counting

All of us are wearing the same expression every American wears here, of wonderment mixed with self-satisfaction at having cleverly removed ourselves from the quotidian discomforts and dangers of life in America while at the same time bravely exposing ourselves to the exigencies of foreign money, a difficult language, and curious food, for instance tripe or andouillette

- Diane Johnson (Le Divorce)

it feels like it was 10 years ago that we made the decision to follow God's call to belgium, sold our little house and everything inside it and marched through months and months of preparation. now we are staring down the last 4 months we have left in the US and ahead to a lifetime in europe. i guess its all becoming less of a far off dream and more of 'we are REALLY doing this' now that we are finally in the visa/work permit process of it all.

we can finally start moving on trying to secure the adorable little apartment we've had our eye on since may (i check on it daily), which freaks me out a bit as the deposit is quite a lot of euros (euros!!!) and we, as of right now, have zero euros for such things.

i've started going through the boys rooms and mentally catalouging the items that will be lucky enough to go with us and the items that will be set out in a final effort garage sale to raise some additional funds.

i wonder if dutch will still love his favourites or will he have a whole new batch of favourite toys in 4 months. will tites be walking by then? will he have favourites too?

walking into my closet, i've started to examine each item and wonder - will i really wear this over there? having only 9 bags (under 50lbs) between the 4 of us in which to take all of our worldly possessions really makes one ponder the necessity of each and every item (especially if it is a rather heavy one).

i am a minimalist, so i rather look forward to reducing our stuff and taking just what we need. but as i begin to realize just how minimal this move will make us, i wonder if forced minimalism is as fun to me as chosen minimalism.

don't feel sorry for me. i love this. i asked for this. i have been waiting for the day when this all goes down.

so 4 months to go... and then, magically, i will be posting from my sparse belgian apartment, sipping my espresso, and trying in vain to figure out the train schedule to brussels.

and loving every minute of it.