We are here! We are here! We are here! We are here!

After a stressful pack-out, cleaning our house from top to bottom, busy week of outprocessing, sad good-byes and four harrowing days of driving we have finally arrived in Rabat.

This has probably been our most stressful move for many reasons. First, we were only allowed to bring 4500 pounds (for those of you who have no idea how much your possessions weigh -- count yourselves lucky. In the military we are obsessed with the weight of our belongings because we have to pay for any weight over the limit we are given. 4500 pounds is not much, especially for 6 people). The movers estimated that each crate they filled with boxes would weigh approximately 1000 pounds, and when they started filling the fifth crate, we asked them to hold off. They insisted on filling all of the crates they brought with them, and sure enough, we went over our limit by 500 pounds. Normally, preparing for a move is a lot of work, but when you have to go through everything you own and decide whether it is coming with you, going into storage for the duration of your next assignment, or given away, it is even crazier.


After we were completely moved out of our house, we moved into a hotel for ten days, during which time we payed final utility bills, outprocessed from base and school, went through our things to prepare for packing up our car, etc.

Then, the big day arrived. On Sunday, January 18th, we loaded up our two cars and started our trek from Germany to Morocco. Yes, we drove. I can hardly believe we did it, myself! Because we took two cars, we both had to drive all day long each day. We decided to take it slow, and planned to only travel 6 or 7 driving hours each day. Anyone with children knows that that would equal out to approximately 10 to 12 hours on the road each day. Once you add stops for food, potty breaks, diaper changes, nursing the baby, naps for exhausted drivers who didn't sleep well the night before and the fact that I don't always drive the actual speed limit (I really don't like to go 130 kph on curvy roads when the wind is whipping my car around), you have the recipe for a really long day. Morgan had reserved hotel rooms at each of our stops along the way. Here is the run-down:

Day 1: We started in Rodenbach, Germany and drove all the way through France. Our GPS took us on an interesting detour right along the outside of a beautiful medieval walled city. We stopped near Marseilles for the night around 1 a.m. We had rented a small apartment. In the morning we were amazed at how much warmer it was than in Germany, and there were palm trees.

Day 2: We drove halfway through Spain. We had never been to Spain before, and it was interesting to see the landscape change. It reminded us of New Mexico, actually, because of the vegetation and architecture. I wish we had been keeping track, because we must have seen at least a dozen beautiful castle ruins along the way.

During this stretch, I almost got us killed when I quickly had to pull off on the shoulder to try and remove a Dorito from Grayson's airways. He was fine, but it was scary at the time. I am very strict about what I let my babies eat, and don't even start feeding them rice cereal until they are six months old at least. Then, a month or two later, I start them on vegetables, but always wait three days in between new varieties. But Liam is such a big helper, and loves to feed his baby brother, so Grayson has now sampled Ritz crackers, Goldfish crackers, and Doritos (that I know of). In this case, he was eating chips, and wanted to share, and I panicked when I heard the baby choking. But we survived!

We stopped for the night in Valencia where we stayed in a very interesting hotel that reminded me of a dorm room. The room service was good, though, and I got to sample some authentic Spanish tortilla (Spanish omelette with potatoes in it).

Day 3: We drove the rest of the way through Spain. We got lost early in the day, taking a scary detour through the city of Valencia. Because of that, our GPS ended up taking us on a different route than originally planned. It was a long travel day as we wound our way through snowy mountain passes. I was so relieved to finally arrive at our hotel that night in Algeciras, Spain.

Day 4: Algeciras is a port city, right on the coast of the Straits of Gibraltar. I remember learning about the Straits of Gibraltar in elementary school geography lessons, but never imagined I would actually cross them! First thing in the morning, we drove our cars onto a ferry. I had never travelled by ferry before, and didn't know what to expect. We drove onto the ferry and were directed to something like an underground parking garage. We locked up our cars and went up to the deck, which was an enclosed area with comfortable seats, a restaurant area, gift shop, and completely lined with windows. The actual ferry trip only lasted less than an hour. Toward the end of the trip, we went back to our cars and prepared to disembark. We arrived in a little village that is still part of Spain, but on the other side of the straits. From there we went through customs, which took about an hour, and then started our journey to Rabat.

The roads in Morocco were much less-travelled than the autoroutes throughout Europe. People avoid the autoroutes because they don't want to pay the tolls. What struck me, though, is how much foot traffic there was along the highways. People were walking along the sides and in the medians. At one point I even had to slam on my brakes because some sheep were grazing at the side of the road, and one of them started to run down the hill toward the highway.

When we arrived in Rabat, we went straight to a beautiful hotel called the Villa Mandarine, where we stayed for a week and a half. It is built on an old orange grove, and it is stunning. Under other circumstances (like without a two-year-old who tried to swim in the fountain) I would have loved to stay there. The embassy had actually found us a house before we got here, but it fell through. I was really looking forward to being able to just drive up to our house and move right in, especially after the very stressful move. So we were disappointed to have to stay in a hotel, but grateful that it was such a nice location.

On Saturday, we moved into a temporary house. It has four bedrooms, a dining room, living room, family room, garage and small yard. It really is nice, but we qualify for a larger house with a bigger garden, so we are only staying here for a few weeks until the house they have for us is ready. Like all of the houses here, it is completely enclosed by a gate, so I am relieved to not worry as much about Liam running into the street. I am also happy to be able to do laundry here without having to load up the car and take it to a laundromat or a friend's house. I haven't been able to do that in almost a month. Last night I cooked my first meal in almost a month as well. It was nice to be able to do that again after such a long break.

Life here is really good, and I think we are going to be very happy. I look forward to being able to post more now that things are starting to settle down a bit. I have so much to tell you about school, church, trips, driving in Rabat, and life in general here. I am unable to post pictures with the internet connection I have right now, but I will add some to this post when I can.

I want to thank everyone who was so helpful to us in Germany as we were leaving, in Morocco as we were arriving, and everyone who prayed for our safety. We are so grateful for all of the people who love us and are concerned for us. We are looking forward to this new chapter in our lives and hope to be able to share it with you through this blog.