PCSing Overseas!

So, we made it to Naples, Italy! 

We began preparing months ago, with hubs' orders kind of last minute, getting our visas and packing up for an overseas move was made a little harder. Thankfully, our friends and family have been super at supporting us. Since hubs had schools the months before our move, I was on my own with [not such a] Baby A, who we'll now just call A, and our latest addition the the fam, Baby E. I packed and purged and organized my brains out while A attended kindergarten and Baby E worked to distract me by learning to walk at 10 months!

By late September, we had to be clear of our house to allow for renters, so just before hubs was done Navy schooling, movers showed up to pack and load our household goods to ship to Naples. 

At that point, we still didn't have flight details or housing info, which ratcheted up my anxiety to Extreme Overload. Plus, I wanted to make sure we spent some quality time with our friends and family. Luckily, we were able to say goodbye, at least! 

I did my best to organize before we packed, and I can definitely post on that at some point... mostly, the last year, I had been perfecting effective space usage, and putting things in containers. This meant that, for the most part, I just had bins or containers of stuff that got boxed up. I was also concerned about storage conditions for our things, so I put as much as I could into vacuum storage bags. At the end of it all, it was a shock to see our home as empty as when we moved in over 3 years ago.

We stayed in temporary lodging on base once our house was empty, and while it wasn't home, it worked out well enough as it had a separate bedroom for Adrian, as well as a separate living space. We did move after a few days due to a squirrel/rat issue 😳 But as temp military-paid-for-lodging goes, it worked. 

Finally, we received flight information and prepared to leave Tampa. I was nervous for Baby E's first flight(s), and the fact that we didn't get to choose any of the details to best accommodate the kids/plan seating together. However, the boys did so well on their flights, seeming to enjoy the whole process. 

A's ride-on suitcase came in handy, and Baby E snoozer a bit and snacked a bit. We did bring his carseat on the plane rides, since we had to travel with it, anyway. We had flights to Norfolk, VA, where we then caught a military flight to Naples that made a refueling stop in Germany, where we got our first taste of cooler weather! 

on base in Norfolk at a playground

Fort Story in Virginia Beach

Norfolk and our arrival to Naples are definitely worthy of their own posts, so til next time!

-Big A ⚓