I’m not going to lie; this move has been complicated. Of course, all international moves are complex, but most people don’t have the United States Airforce doing its best to make it more difficult. While the military allocated William and me 600 pounds of furniture (which is very little, let me assure you**), we could not ship anything over because the military requires a 60-day notice, but we only received our orders approximately 20 days before William’s report date. To make matters even more exciting, the Travel Management Organization (TMO) decided to book William on a flight 6 days before his report date and not tell him. It was a nasty surprise.

So, after driving back and forth between North Carolina several times, clearing out our apartment, and dropping William and our cat off at the airport, I thought it would be smooth sailing from here on out. My flight was a week after William’s- since I had to pay for my flight, I needed the cheapest one possible – and all I needed to do was sell William’s car and then show up at the airport with my five bags of luggage and fly to Germany. William was going to pick me up from the airport, and we could begin our year in Germany.

Except, there were a few bumps. First, I couldn’t sell William’s car despite having power of attorney signed (and notarized!). The reason was understandable, but it meant that instead of having two full days to finish cleaning the apartment, I drove down to North Carolina that night and flew back the following day. I was grateful for the extra chance to see my parents, but it definitely threw my schedule off.

Then, on November 2nd, I finally got to the airport and was ready to fly. I am forever thankful for the remarkable American Airlines Check-in Officer. According to their website, military members and their dependents flying on active duty orders can bring five free bags each. There was a little confusion at first if I could claim the benefit since I was traveling on those orders but was not with my military spouse. Eventually, the Check-in Officer confirmed that I was good to go, and I handed off all of my bags.

Almost 12 hours later, William and I walked into our hotel at Ramstein Airforce Base (AFB) and were able to relax.

** If you’re wondering how much 600 pounds of furniture gets you, William and I were planning on bringing our mattress (~75 pounds), a kitchen hutch (~100 pounds), two living room chairs (~50 pounds each), a sofa (~175 pounds), and miscellaneous kitchen supplies.