We have done this before. Oh yes, we have. But now that the time has come for us to leave and relocate again, I must say it IS as stressful and a bit chaotic as the first. On our first move outside the Philippines, we were utterly clueless as to how things should go. I should say it didn't turn out the way I wanted. A lot of the hard bound books got dented, a huge cross stitch project I made broke and some of the kiddie stuff went missing during the transport of our stuff. But I couldn't complain since most of our stuff arrived safely so we didn't bother anymore with the loss. Besides, that wasn't my priority then. My goal was just to pack what I can and fly off according to plan and get settled as soon as we can. Why? When we had Lil Ruffin, our youngest baby, she spent two weeks in the hospital (a week in NICU and another in a private room). We lined up for check-ups waiting for the doctor's clean bill of health so she can travel. She was just 2 months old when we landed on Sri Lankan soil.  We prioritized her needs then because our trip relied heavily on how she would recover. Then, we had the older kids attend an international school for awhile so I can give more time for Lil Ruffin. I was completely nursing her.

Hmmm.  Now that she has grown healthy except for some allergies, I am sure she can easily cope with the coming move. So, I think.. just hopefully think, it will run more smoothly. I should know better now, too. Do I, really? I have in my mind to check how things should be done before shipper Creasy comes on the 17th. So I googled and thus, learned that there are to-do-lists for every period of weeks prior to relocation, starting with 8 weeks prior to departure!  "Ayooo!" As Sri Lankan would say in their own heavy accent when faced with a big challenge..

To-do lists before moving again (based on About.com's Before you Start to Pack...)

8 weeks before we move - Aha! Reality check, we have only 18 days before we leave Sri Lanka to fly to Singapore, 21 days before flying from Singapore to Manila, and 15 days before the final transfer to Cairo from Manila. We have a total of 44 days before we reach Cairo, just 6 weeks and there are trips to two countries in-between . Tsk, tsk! I realized I should have checked in google a lot earlier. Nonetheless, I will try what I can to make an inventory. Here are the tasks, among many others, that need immediate attention.

                 Conducting a Household Inventory and Packing List.

                 Collecting and Sorting Records.

                 Change of address checklist. In our case, this will include friends and family who regular via snail mail. As for utilities, the cut off of the internet service is at the end of the month since we have paid for the house until 18th of January. The telephone, water and electric services will contnue as stated in our contract and the owner will pay for the bill for January.

6 weeks before we move  I think it is close to impossible to look for health professionals now. Through word of mouth, we just learned who the good doctors are through other expats who have been here longer. I expect the same would happen when we get to Cairo, so I need not worry yet about this.

And since we use email as our way of keeping in touch with family and friends I have few who has to be informed of our shift via postal snail.

Right now, I am half way to cleaning all our closets except for the bookshelves in the study. That one will take a long and hard work. I have two boxes filling up labeled to keep pile and giveaway pile. Later, I would decide which ones to give away here and the ones to give out in the Philippines.

As for the financial providers, the DH, being in the microfinance field, would definitely manage that. These include our bank savings and credit cards.

A big relief about this move is that all our stuff will be sealed in one big container. My husband's new employer would take care of the shipping. Yet, I still feel the need to make an inventory. I do not want to be caught unprepared in case something goes missing.

4 weeks before we move

I have a few things in mind that go under this list. The things is - I have just started!

__Have the internet connection cut.

__Pay phone and internet bills for the month of December.

__Pay electric and water bills.

__Finalize which items go to Cairo container, to Singapore and Philippines. This is tricky since we have to leave some of our baggage at the Changgi airport storage for a fee during our three-days tay in Singapore. We have to make items that we need to bring in like clothes including gifts to friends in Singapore will not be in this baggage.

__Start finding new homes for our plants. How they will be transported.

__ Keep packing!

All these on top of lessons still to be learned at the homeschool front.

To be continued tomorrow. Two weeks before we move.