100 Days... (Part 3 of 3)

Kia Ora!

All right, let's wrap this 100 days up!

So, once graduation was done it was time to kick it in gear. Our tickets for New Zealand were for June 18th. Meaning once graduation was done we had 10 days until we left and oh so much to do.

We made arrangements with my sister, Sadie, to use one bay of their garage to store things we didn't want to get rid of but also couldn't take with us to New Zealand.

Side note: We were only taking with us what we could on the plane. Our first piece of luggage was included in the ticket price and we each could have a carry on and a personal item. But any piece of luggage after that first was $200/each. I set a goal to take 18 pieces of luggage (or less if possible). So, we couldn't take a lot.

As I packed things that we would leave in Sadie's garage I found an app where I could put the box # and what was inside the box. Should we decide to be here very long term we will make arrangements to ship our belongings here and having an inventory of each box will be required for customs, and also then if we need to get something from Sadie's we can know which box it is in. Hopefully. At least that is the plan. We'll see, should that need arise, just how good I was at labeling the boxes. I definitely could have done better, but hopefully it will suffice. So, all our earthly belongings are either in Sadie's garage or here in NZ with us. We don't have a lot of things anymore, which is actually quite freeing feeling, I must say. Oh, though I must add we did make a deal with Sadie and Paris - selling them some of our treasured worldly items with the stipulation that we can buy them back for the same price should we ever decide we want to. Rather generous of them!

Okay, so there was so much to do. Boxing up the tv, speakers, subwoofer, etc., wrapping up our custom made dining table and chairs (oh and I made a big mistake and didn't wrap it good enough so sadly, a part of the table got scratched. Ugh. Hopefully we'll be able to fix it whenever we get it back). Oh and lest you forget, I'm still trying to sell things that we didn't plan on keeping. 

My poor in-laws. They sacrificed so much and put up with so very much especially those last few weeks. Their house was a disaster, their shop became my staging area (in prep for Sadie's) as well as where I stored all out stuff that was going to DI (there was so much, and my sweet father-in-law offered to take it all for us after we left, I don't even want to know how many trips he had to make). Honestly, I do not know how we would have made this move without their help. Not to mention they kept sleeping in the guest room and let me keep the master suite! It would have been a whole other level of crazy, and it was already a pretty high level!

Don't forget, though James is done with school, the other kids are still finishing up. Autumn graduated from Legacy (it only goes through 8th grade), Brynn got her driver's license (in the nick of time!), and I'm sure Daniel had some stuff going on, too, but his poor mom was probably too overwhelmed and crazy to notice!

And, hardest of all, saying goodbye to friends and family. My beautiful friend, Janice, threw a going away brunch for me, which I so appreciated. It was so good to say goodbye to some of my oldest friends. 

(I wanted to include more pictures of me with my friends, but didn't know which of my friends would be unhappy with me if I posted those pics without their consent, so I will just make do with this one group photo of some of us, but know that I love you all, picture or no!!)

When I moved back to Idaho from Virginia in 2021 I made a stipulation with my sisters that we had to have a monthly lunch together. We didn't miss many months, and I am so grateful we did that! Oh how I miss our sister's lunches! I'm so glad we did it and I can't wait until our next one!! Here we are at our last one, not long before I left. Before the tears started. 

We also had to sell our vehicles (well, except for Brad's S2000, that's actually sitting in Sadie's garage with our other stuff!). It was so hard to sell my van. We got it brand new in 2008, just a few months after James was born. I've been driving this thing for the past 18 years and I LOVE my van. It's been with our family through our cross country move (and several drives back and forth across the country). It's been such a great vehicle and man alive, I still miss it! But I think it went to a good family and honestly, it was probably the ideal time for selling it. We didn't get the Fit sold before we had to leave and (once again) my poor in-laws had to keep helping us, even after we had fled the country! James was rather sad about leaving the Fit behind, and he misses his car, too!

This is me getting in the van to deliver it to it's new owner.

I was doing okay when we went to see my parents before leaving, right up until I started hugging my dad goodbye and then, well, I was a bit of an emotional mess. It was hard saying goodbye to my parents and leaving them behind. I hope they know I love them and miss them!

So, when we moved to Virginia back in 2016 we had a family dinner at Chuck-A-Rama with our Bodily family. We decided to keep the tradition alive and went to dinner the night before our flight with Mom and Dad. 

As far as being apart from Brad for 100 days. It was hard. But, we survived. I'm so grateful I had my children and family to help me through those 100 days. I hope we don't have to ever do that again, but if we do, we know we'll be okay.

With love from New Zealand, 

Lyndsay