Utter Chaos

We are finally at that moment.

I mean the moment where we pick up and leave. It's heartbreaking and exhilarating, chaotic and yet under someone else's control, and it's stressful and also freeing.

Here is where I make my first confession: I have never really moved before. Yes, I've moved from a dorm room to an apartment and then to another apartment, but seriously - I have never moved before. I don't think you can call it a move if you can put everything you own into bags and put it into a Honda Civic. You know, where the furniture is so grungy that you need to leave it in a dumpster when you leave?

So, that's me and our three kids - never moved before. Most of our lives (I try not to include my unsuccessful year at the College of William and Mary) have been spent here in New Castle County ,Delaware. Specifically, Brandywine Hundred, which is at its best the very best of small town living. And here we go to the biggest city in the world.

Now, my husband Nick is truly a world citizen. Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he lived until the age of three. Spent some early years back in the UK, and then lived in Aden (now in Yemen), and lived in Nigeria again until he was 14. He finished school and university in the UK, then lived in Tokyo for 2 years in the mid-eighties. Then he was transferred to the US where he met me, and he's been here ever since. So this isn't as scary a proposition for him as it is for the rest of us.

The photos are from the chaos that is our house. The movers arrive tomorrow to pack us up for Tokyo. I don't think we are ready, but here we go!