The start of my move (hopefully the final one), and a new journey begins

Moving is stressful! Over the past four days I have been organizing the amount of things I have here to prepare for my move to leave Korea. I have been setting aside uniforms and day to day clothes I will wear for the next month or so, and although the majority of my things are in storage, I still had a lot that I brought with me to Korea. I've also accumulated a lot being here. I'm anal when it comes to moving, so I pretty much fold and pack everything in boxes and bins for the movers, so all they have to do is tape down and move out. I've been told that I'm one of the easiest people to move. 

When I moved into my furnished apartment, the bed I was given was extremely firm (Koreans love hard beds). This made me purchase another bed to use during my time here. Over the years with it just being little ol' me, I have bought three bedroom suites--yikes!

I have been overseas serving consecutively since 2005, and with weight restrictions I haven't been able to take all I have to my next base. My first bedroom suite was purchased in Germany; I got an assignment to Japan and I was limited to just 1000 pounds so the set had to be stored. I get to Japan and find out that I could have brought my stuff over, but they wouldn't allow me to release my shipment. So what did I do? I bought another bedroom suite. 29 months later and getting comfortable with that one, I find out I was heading to Korea, which has weight restrictions as well! Another set placed in storage. So now I have two separate shipments that are in storage that I had to release--one in Benicia, CA and another in Hampton, VA. Luckily the one in Hampton has already made it to Maryland so I won't have to wait for a bed.  The second shipment should be there soon. Over the years I have accumulated two sets of sofas and love seats, a dining room set and other misc. items over the years. I know I will only buy more when I get to Maryland to complete the house...sigh.

As I sit here on the couch looking at tons of boxes waiting to be picked up by the movers in a few hours, I've come to the realization that I am tired of moving. Having to do all of this by myself multiple times (Steve has his own stuff in storage, don't get me started on that) has taken its toll. I truly hope I am able to stay in the DC metro area for the final six years of my career so that I can retire and wont have to sort, box or pack (unless we choose to move into another home in the area, but at least I will have help).

I have been truly blessed to travel the world, and to experience different cultures. I've encountered things I've never thought would be possible in such a small amount of time. But I have also been homesick and missing my family. When I told my Mom that I was moving to Korea, she told me that it would be the LAST overseas assignment I would have, and it was time for me to come home. She finally got her wish.