Well, Bear and our SUV are on their way to St. Simons Island, Georgia right now.  My mother-in-law flew in last night to take both of them home.

I’ve touched on this before, but I may not have been very clear.  We aren’t shipping our cars to New Zealand, and we aren’t taking Bear.  In regards to the cars, the steering column would need to be moved to the other side of the vehicle.  That’s a lot of work, and once it’s done we wouldn’t be allowed to sell our car for 5 years.  It makes more sense to buy a car in New Zealand, if in fact we actually need one.

As far as Bear goes, it was the nicer thing to do {for Bear} to leave him with my in-laws.  Bear would have had to go through some invasive medical tests and exams, fly for about 24 hours in cargo, be transported to a quarantine facility, and then be kept there for 30 days with minimal human contact {and don’t get me started on some of the things that I have heard that happen in those quarantine facilities – it can be terrible}.  He would not have been the same dog, and I thought it would have been selfish of me to make him go through all of that just so I could have him there.  We will also likely be making some long trips home after we’ve been in New Zealand for awhile, and we would have to board him during those times.  And just to show that we were thinking way ahead, what if we decided to come back to the US after 5 years?  Bear would be 10 1/2 years old, and he would have to go through the same process all over again.  That didn’t seem right.

He will love being with my in-laws.  My mother-in-law feeds their dogs Bil-Jac dog food {the kind made from real meat that is kept in the freezer} mixed in with chicken.  These dogs get walked all the time, have the run of the house, and sleep with my in-laws each night.  They are loved and spoiled, and I know that they’ll take great care of him.

It was still hard to give him up.  To make matters worse, while Bear was rough-housing with my parents’ dog on Monday, he injured his knee.  Turns out he has a partially ruptured ligament and may need surgery.  We’ve had Bear for 5 1/2 years and he’s never had an injury like that.  But 3 days before he has to go to his new home?  Of course that would be when it happens, wouldn’t it?

I’ll miss my little friend.  He was always so happy to see me and loved people.  He was sweet, cuddly, and a constant source of amusement.  I’ve cried about giving him up, but I’m glad that he has a good home.

And since I’m not one to sit around and wallow, I’ve decided that the best thing to be done is to keep busy.  Our flight leaves in 2 days, and I still have things to do: go to the store to stock up on travel necessities {I loved all of the suggestions you gave me – I’m using some of them!}, buy some snacks so that we don’t have to eat a bunch of airport food, and purchase a few more things that I’d like to have readily available once we get to New Zealand.

I’m looking forward to being in our new country and new city.  I’m excited to walk all over the place and explore the area.  There have been more delays in regards to my NZ RN registration, so I still don’t have a job lined up.  I’m planning to use the extra time to exercise, sight-see, and immerse myself in my new location.  I’ve had my moments of mini-meltdowns {particularly as regards my RN paperwork}, but I keep reminding myself how blessed I am: my husband is smart, has a great job, and loves me.  I get to move to New Zealand, the prettiest country on earth!  We’re both healthy and financially stable.  If for some reason I can’t get my NZ RN paperwork to go through, Chris is OK with me doing volunteer work or finding some other worthy occupation {I’m not too keen on that idea, but it’s nice to know that he would be alright with me not having a paying job}.

I will try to write one more post before we board the plane.  We are leaving on Saturday afternoon and won’t be arriving in eNZed till about 23 hours later provided that there are no delays.  I’m planning to carry our Flip camcorder and take some photos to share with all of you, my lovely readers.  Please keep us in your thoughts!