Tuesday, September 21, 2010

First Post--kitty has a new home


This blog is created on the first "real" day of the new adventure. We (a family of four is setting out an a journey far far away). Andy has gotten a job with USAID, which stands for US Agency for International Development and is a branch of the Foreign Service.

We will be in D.C. for at least a year for training and then we will be assigned to and eventually get to choose our posts overseas.

The reason I say that this is our first "real" day is that it has finally hit a couple of us. We have an auction coming up in 4 days that will take place and remove most of our personal belongings and home, but today we dropped off our cat at a wonderful new home. I have had this cat since college and he has lived in every place with me and us since 1997. Everyone has asked me how the kids (Izzy-5 and Hollis-3) are taking it (the move). I thought they were doing great until today when we had to drop Gizmo off at our friends' house. Since we were going to Lann's birthday party and dropping Gizzy off at the same place I thought we would all be fine.

Gizmo did great except for he meowed the entire time and the kids were a bit upset. They sang to him and wanted to check on him several times on the drive. Before cake was brought out, I took Gizmo out of his cage and walked him around while holding him. He seemed fine, didn't freak out or anything. I let him down and followed him and petted him periodically. He decided that he was happy under the outdoor wood furnace. I got to pet him a few more times under there and said my goodbyes just in case, yet figuring he would still be there when we left.

Unfortunately, he disappeared when I went back one last time. He is a little explorer and can hold a grudge. I think that Molly and I are enough alike for him to really latch onto her.

When we left and knew he was in great hands, I looked back and saw while were driving that Izzy was very sad. I asked if she was tired, she said "no". So I asked "are you sad because we had to leave Lann's birthday party?" She said, "no". I saw the tears and I asked, "are you sad about Gizmo" and she said, "yes," and let the tears flow. Needless to say I was holding them back, so I jumped on the opportunity.

We had our drive of at least 45 minutes to be sad and now as I am welling up I still know this is the best. The best for our children that will get opportunities beyond our wildest dreams. and our pets will be just fine. By the way, Hollis asked me to get Izzy to stop her whining. I guess he is still too young for empathy, but I guarantee he will ask about Gizmo tomorrow first thing and say "ooahhwww, I miss him".

As we prepare for our auction it is hard for me to think that we will be sitting in a house nearly empty of furniture and certain comforts, but hopefully freer and with a clearer understanding of what is important. By the way~~we have some chairs to return to Walmart and upgrade to the fancy ones!! We are going to go all out and spend double on some lawn chairs since they will be our furniture for a week!