Busy Days and Hard Moments

200 pounds shipped - done. A 12-hour shopping marathon in Portland - done. Doctor appointment, dentist appointment, and eye doctor appointment - done. Write will - done. But that is just the beginning...

Teaching tools, birth equipment, some special foods, dishes, clothes, and pictures for the walls all packed up... 

... And ready to ship, so they can be included in a container to the hospital. 

Well the to do list is full and the days are busy with so much to do before I leave. It is easy to get overwhelmed! I am determined though to do as much as I can as early as I can because then my focus can be on people in the days before I leave.

One of the hardest moments of this transition so far, came today when I had to put my cat Missy to sleep. She has been a faithful friend for almost 10 years now. I have never been a cat lover, so when I originally got her in Indonesia she was mainly to help keep the rat population in my house under control. Somehow though she became so much more. In those 10 years she has moved 6 times with me - once all the way across the ocean :) She was always there to greet me when I came home from a long shift at work. Naps on my shoulder or lap were a favorite pastime. And she rarely failed to get me out of the house on our daily walk to the mailbox or to have some fun with her toys. I wish I would have been able to take her back to Indonesia with me but her kidney disease had become too severe. She has been a precious addition to my life and she will be greatly missed!

The day she arrived - she would eventually grow into those ears but at a top weight of six and half pounds she was always tiny. 

A recent nap time on her heated window bed. She never did adjust to the cold of the Northwest :)