Step by Step





God has a plan for Jon and I, and I am so relieved that his plan involves moving us to Aberdeen instead of Angola. It was pretty touch and go there for a while. Jon’s start date is set for May 1, but I’m not sure that’s a realistic time frame to sell everything we own and move to the UK. Our interpretation of this start date is ‘as soon as humanly possible’.

Moving internationally will be my new full time job and therefore I put my two weeks’ notice in today. I hate to leave my co-workers in a lurch, but the alternative is too stressful to contemplate. There are only 8 weekends between now and our supposed move date so I’ll need to be free to focus on relocation.

The first step is getting the dogs ready to ship. When we first found out about the Aberdeen assignment, my only misgiving was getting our dogs there. The UK is rabies free and therefore has strict and complicated pet importation rules. When my parents moved to Scotland, my grandparents and I took turns fostering their golden retriever for a 6 month quarantine period. In the meantime, they were living in Aberdeen without their fur-baby.

As I started researching the process, I was thrilled to discover that as of January 1, 2012, the UK has substantially relaxed the rules and quarantine is no longer required.  Step one is having them micro chipped and vaccinated (doesn’t matter that this has already been done, it must be redone for this purpose). Then we must wait 21 days after their rabies shot before shipping them into the UK. They must also be treated for tapeworms within 5 days of leaving the US and must be shipped as cargo by a UK approved company.

I’m bummed that even lil' Samson has to be imported as cargo and can’t ride in the cabin with us, but I’m so thankful that we don’t have to be separated from either of them for any length of time.  Because if you want to see a grade A meltdown, put me in a stressful situation without my dogs. Not pretty.

can't be apart from this sweet face!

 I’ll write more on the topic as we get started, but if you’re interested in the logistics, you can find more information here. There is so much to do; it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Any change is stressful, even the good kind.  I’m just trying to take it one step at a time.

 Giving my two weeks’ notice was the first hurdle and I’m so thankful for the positive and encouraging reaction I received from my office. Next up is micro chipping the dogs. Step by step, I can manage this. It’s when I look at the monstrous to-do list in its entirety that I start to panic. But I can counter that by looking at a picture of Scotland such as this one and I know without doubt that all the stress will be worth it.