The World is My Oyster...and I'm Moving to Scotland!

Today marks our two week countdown to our big move. I woke up this morning to Glacier poking me with his cold nose and Roscoe dancing around grumbling in his Roscoe way. I groggily stumbled out of bed, down the stairs and over to the dogs' food closet and then it hit me: we have two weeks left! Two weeks is not a long time. It is amazing how a crazy idea discussed sitting at a Tim Horton's during the Christmas holidays has become a reality. Who would have thought eight months ago that I'd be selling off/giving away pretty much everything I own to embark on one of the largest adventures of my life. I thought people got married and settled down. I think that is why I was so afraid of marriage for so long. I wasn't, and am not, ready to "settle down," in the "you must stay in one spot" sense. Fortunately for me, I found the right guy who is willing to sell/give away most of his possessions to experience this incredible opportunity with me. I couldn't be happier.
Yesterday we had a fabulous birthday dinner at a friends' house. The meal was quite hardy, as they are in The South, and the home made peach pie was delicious. I even got a cake with a burning match in place of a candle. We had a great evening just chatting and laughing. Earlier in the day I had been a bit stressed just thinking about everything we still needed to do, but our conversation turned to our "to do" list and the whole family offered to help us. They are willing to haul stuff to Good Will for us; sell some of the bigger items like the dryer if we can't sell them before we leave; ship a box over with smaller more keep sake type items; clear our place out once we've left; clean the place after we leave...the list could go on. I was incredibly touched by their generosity and a wave of relief washed over  me. I woke up this morning feeling much lighter and a lot less stressed. I feel like we have a better game plan now and a support network to help us reach our goal. They even offered to come over two days before we leave and help us pack everything. Again, I am so grateful-there is just so much stuff and so little space to squish it all in to that I had no idea where to start.
I also got Roscoe and Glacier's appointment to have their paperwork "endorsed" moved to an earlier time and that makes me feel so much better. We have to send the documents over to Animal Reception in London before we leave and they will send us a pre-approval letter back. Our original appointment would not have given us much time before our departure and I was concerned that the letter would not reach us before we left. The pre-approval letter has to be presented to the Airline before leaving the United States and I was worried that we wouldn't even be able to leave.
Glacier and Roscoe's "safety" harnesses have also arrived. Richard, from Leader Dogs for the Blind, filled me in  on what style of harness we needed to purchase and Mr. K and I were able to find them on Amazon. Mr. K just has to walk over to the apartment complex's main office to pick them up and we'll be able to try them on. These two new developments make me feel a bit more at ease.
A friend, one of the people who offered to help us out last night, is going to run us to find a larger suitcase tonight. Mr. K and I figure we're already going to get  charged for an over sized bag, so why only be over by two pounds? We have "space saver" bagged some of our linens already and when I tried to fit it into our luggage yesterday, we realised very quickly that the suitcases are much too small. So, "a shopping we will go."
With help available and the dogs' stuff becoming more organised, I had an overwhelming feeling of grattitude this morning. Oh, and of excitement too. It's a little scary to think that in just over two weeks I'll be roaming the streets of a completely different  country on a completely different continent, but I guess that is a part of the thrill of it all. As that old saying goes,,
"The world is my oyster."