Our Stuff (No, we don't have it yet!)

I am trying to have a good attitude about the fact that we are going on nearly a month late in receiving our stuff. (It's funny that we call it that. Is that all it is? Just stuff? Really puts things in perspective.)

Anyways, we are going on three months without our things.

Seriously.

If I am being honest, we are doing absolutely a-ok. We have everything we need. Loans of air mattresses, a table, buying a cheap couch, and a baby gate have made this totally doable.

However, JB took a month of terminal leave. A big reason for that was making sure he was home and able to help me when the movers came -- to make sure we had time to unpack and get things in order.

It's why we packed out the first week of April. That date gave us a "stuff arrival" of June 3rd.

Yeah. Ummmm ... that didn't happen.

And now JB has to go back to work. He starts his job as an emergency medicine physician the first week of July.

I am trying not to blame the military or make them out as the bad guys. I will never speak badly against the military. They paid for my husband's medical school and gave us an awesome adventure and did many wonderful things for our family. Most everyone in my life is a part of this pride-filled organization.

Honestly, I don't know whose fault this is. All I know is that it is ridiculous that a person can ship out everything they own and people not give any information as to where it is or when it has arrived or when it will be released.

I have connected with four other families who are "on our boat." (Literally, their stuff was supposed to be on our ship.) A few are worse off than us. Their vehicle is on the boat. Thank the Lord our vehicle went out on an earlier boat. (I can't imagine the cost of renting a mini van for over a month!)

Right now we are simply waiting for the port in Baltimore to pull our crate off the boat and call our moving company and tell them that they can load the truck and get us our stuff. The moving company in the USA keeps calling them. They can't really get any reply at all. They just get a, "We'll let you know when we get to it," reply.

Seriously!?

In addition, the American moving company has told us that when they do get word our stuff has been released, it can still take a lot of time to schedule a delivery. Apparently, the port only gives the moving company two hours per day that they are allowed to come and load up the truck.

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

I've also heard that our shipment was miscoded in the Azores. I am not sure if this is correct or not. Could just be a rumor. But apparently we were supposed to be a Code 4 and are instead a Code 5 which means people care even less about everything we own being on their ship.

Again, can't make this up.

Your prayers for our stuff to get here are always appreciated. I know that there are bigger problems in the world, but man would it be nice to get the things that can make our house a home.