Crazy Transition

Friday, September 29, 2006

We have left Las Vegas and are back to New York for a day before we are off to Milan. The Las Vegas trip was productive as Ben met several Italian companies that seem to be promising contacts. Melissa's brother, Kevan, and his wife, Anne, met us in Vegas and took us out for a wonderful anniversary dinner. Another highlight of the Vegas trip was getting to see Cirque de Soleil's Mystere. Wow, if you ever get a chance to see Cirque de Soleil, jump at the opportunity. The performers are talented in ways that challenge your ideas of what the human body is capable of doing. What a show.

Saturday will be busy with many final preparations before our Milan journey. We can't believe that the trans-Atlantic moving day is finally here. Hopefully, all will go well...especially with bringing our beloved Kato (the cat) with us. We appreciate the prayers, support, and encouragement that so many of you have given us. This might be the last blog before we're in Italy, so to all our friends and family, we love you, we will miss you. Please come and visit. Arrivederci !!!
(The fruit bouquet was an awesome anniversary present from Michelle that she sent to our room.)

DixieLand Adventures

Tuesday, September 26. 2006

I write this from 30,000 feet above the ground on our flight from Memphis, TN to Las Vegas. Our time in Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi is over. After packing up all our stuff and by a miracle of God (plus the Jarretts, Elizabeth Kamp and Heidi), fitting it into a 5x8 trailer, we drove down to see Melissa's family in Northern Virginia. It was great to see my friends and family and it really made me feel sad about moving so far away. On Thursday, we drove 15 and a half hours to Memphis, Tennessee. As you can see from the above picture, we had to strap the mattress to the top of the car which gave us a good deal of trouble.
In Memphis, we had a great party with Ben's friends and got to catch up with them. After spending a fun day at the Aberdeen Ford Dealership with Doug in Mississippi, Ben and I drove to Pickwick Lake where Lucy and Bruce have just built a beautiful house. (See pictures below). We went on the boat and fished and hung out in the hot tub and made s'mores in the fire pit-very relaxing.

We still don't have an apartment for Milan, but the dashing Kevin Lewis was a star and picked our visas up for us at the Consulate while we are out of town. Yay Kevin!!

Tomorrow is the 3rd Anniversary of our Marriage. We are so grateful for everyone's support and love to us over these years and are thankful to have each other and to be beginning a new adventure.

Making Progress

Thursday, September 14, 2006
Today was a wonderful day. After standing in line for a total of 6 hours over 4 different days outside at 7:30 am with some really interesting people, our applications for visas were finally accepted! We were made to produce all sorts of documents that seemed to make no sense, but we did it. And it really was a miracle.

So, we've obtained Kato's papers for travel and some nice drugs for him to take and found someone to take care of him while we are traveling in the USA. Ben has finished his work at Spin City Cycle and Melissa's last day at Business Committee for the Arts is tomorrow. We've packed up a lot of our things and said goodbye to some people already.

So it's really happening. We really are moving to Italy where we will know no one and not speak the language and live in an apartment and city we have yet to see.

PS- Thanks to all who made my birthday so special. M

La Dolce Vita di Doane

Friday, September 1, 2006
Well, it is 30 days until we depart for our Italian adventure. It’s an understatement to say our minds are very busy with lots of important details that have yet to be organized. We have no apartment or visas. But some encouraging things have happened today. We got an email about a possible beautiful apartment and some replies to our ad for a cat sitter while we are in Virginia, Memphis and Vegas. Also, Melissa got the day off of work, which was a huge blessing. Another fun thing about leaving the country - canceling your cellphone service, health, renters and car insurance, electricity and other annoying things.

Anyway, for those who care, here is our schedule for the next month.
September 19-21, Virginia
September 22-26, Memphis (Mississippi and Pickwick)
September 26-29, Las Vegas
September 29-October 1, New York City
October 1, Milan