Packing Genes

As a girl I remember being amazed at how my mom could pack a suitcase, a box or a car almost effortlessly. Everything seemed to fit in one attempt and she was relatively stress free...if my recollection serves me correctly. I'm not sure if my mom would agree, but we'll go on my memory for today's purposes.

Even the many times mom has helped us pack and move in the last almost 12 years, I'm amazed at how she makes it work. After last week, I'm thinking that maybe I've inherited some of those genes when it comes to packing up our jeans (lame...I know...I had to...you understand, right?) Or maybe I just paid enough attention to how my mom did it all those years.

Although our departure date to PNG has changed, our plan for packing our crate for the next 4 years was still a "go". We might as well since we brought everything from Texas that we wanted (think some Christmas ornaments and pictures) We'd been buying a few things we anticipated needing...think undies, socks, clothes, shoes for three kids growing feet and me trying to decide which shoes to bring. Not an easy task...the purchasing of undies or deciding on my shoes!

After lots of prayer, sorting through shoes, rolling every piece of clothing, stuffing every nook and cranny with something...think salad spinner filled with band aids and pots and pans with jackets...I had an empty box! I was shocked and amazed. A total God thing! So with the leftover space Jason was able to pack a toolbox that he really wanted to take with him and I was able to pack some extra toys for the kids I hadn't anticipated.

Top row...the mess before
Bottom left...the empty crate
Bottom right...the final product ready to ship

Tuesday I loaded the boxes, headed to shipping and said "see ya" to a part of life that will come with us on this journey. I was so relieved to have that task done. What a crazy, fun, Christmas morning kind of day it will be the day our crate arrives!