Empty House

Warning:  For those of you who read for general amusement and the occasional laugh,  I'll have to warn you that this post doesn't contain much of either.  To paraphrase 'K' in the movie  'Men in Black', MsCaroline no longer has a sense of humor that she is aware of.

Things are winding down to a close here.  We've been shuttling between hotel and emptying house, watching them box, wrap, and remove for the last 4 days and we're all worn down.  Even the kids are tired of it, although - being male - they couldn't resist turning all of the big open spaces into impromptu wrestling arenas, making me - as the only real adult present - roll my eyes, wince, and occasionally point out that someone was going to get hurt. (Mr. Logical, of course, found it all to be great fun and joined in on more than one occasion, so I'm standing by the 'only adult' comment.)

I'm so tired and drained that I've lost most of my cynical sense of humor, although I'm still sufficiently jaded to note that both of my children seem to be very comfortable living a nomadic lifestyle and would likely adjust quickly to life beneath an underpass.

The storage people, having shrouded all of our remaining furniture in brown paper padding, have loaded it onto the truck, ready to bear it off to a storage facility where it will sit for months and years, still and silent, awaiting our return.  The house is empty except for fragments of packing tape and the accumulated dust and debris of the last six years of our lives here. Tomorrow, we get up in the dark and head for the airport and our new lives in Seoul.

We're ready for - and excited about - this new chapter in our lives, but we're all having a hard time finishing the present chapter.  The last days of packing and moving have also been full of  shared meals, hugs that will have to last for years, laughter, fond reminiscing, and teary goodbyes.  We have been loved, supported, helped, encouraged, blessed, cheered, and prayed for.

Which makes it that much harder to leave.