As many of you know, our flight to Cairo was supposed to be Monday night but our visas did not come in on time. This unfortunately is not uncommon as diplomatic visas always take longer to process. But it means that we were all packed and ready Monday at lunch hoping we’d get word the visas were in. But they weren’t. So we’ll try again end of the week. Let’s hope it works out then!

Most of May was a combination of getting ready for movers and packing in time with friends. Lots of playdates, including the dreaded “last playdates” that DD4 (remember, Dear Daughter age 4) is now old enough to understand. Tears and lots of “I don’t want to say good-bye to my friends” made for some rough nights.

DD had her birthday celebration which was a fun all day affair–morning party ending with a pizza lunch with friends and their parents and then an afternoon/dinner party with family. We have been lucky that much of our extended family (as in the kids’ grandparents, aunts and uncles) are within a few hours drive of us. They are great about descending en masse for family events. The next day was Mother’s Day and a group of us did lunch out.

We had made the difficult decision not to bring our cat with us to Cairo. He joined us in India and really for an indoor cat, life overseas is the same as in the States. However, Cairo has a higher chance of evacuation then Delhi did and evacuating pets is often more miss than hit. I’d be crushed to leave him behind in an evacuation, so he went to live with my brother-in-law while we are there. It was a very emotional good-bye as he was my first baby, but we get regular photos of him and I know he’s doing well.

I had my last “playdates” as well–a Mom’s Night Out with friends from MOMS Club, an open house at our house where various friends stopped by, and a well-timed Memorial Day weekend cookout at a friend’s house where I got to see many friends. The only thing that makes this goodbye easier is that we will always cycle through the DC area, both for work and to visit family and so will see them again. Leaving friends in India was rougher as odds are low we’ll see them again (though we do have plans to meet up with at least one friend in the UAE sometime this fall).

You’ve seen my other posts about pack out by now, so I won’t dwell on that. We survived. Kids went to my mom’s. Their sleep schedules have been all over the place with DS 16 months waking up between 4 and 5 am many days and wanting to stay up and DD4 taking 1-2 hours to fall asleep at night and then waking multiple times. They pick up on the stress and DD4 just keeps saying how she wants to be home and when I explain that Egypt will be our home she says, “I know! I just want to be home in Egypt.” We are all ready to get there and start settling in.

After pack out, we had a nice Memorial Day weekend at my mom’s. DH’s (dear husband’s) folks came up to visit as well. Then I had to drive back up to Sterling two days in a row to get the house ready to turn over to our landlords. I am so glad I don’t have to make that drive every day! Whew! Rush hour traffic is like a 4+ hour window both morning and evening.

Spent a few fun days doing playground and visiting the horses at the nearby farm and met up with my dad and his fiance for playground and ice cream.

This past weekend my mom’s house was full of family. DH’s parents and sister and her husband came up and then my aunt and uncle and stepbrother came out and we all said our goodbyes. Except then we didn’t leave on Monday. Still, it will be the last time we see almost all of them for a while (my mother-in-law will come back up end of the week to help us get to the airport).

DD4 has been taking riding lessons for 2 years now whenever we come out to visit my mom. She has a good friend who has a horse named Danny at one of the barns in the neighborhood. From day 1 DD has been obsessed with Danny and has had good form and confidence. She got to ride in front of the extended family and was THRILLED. She kept asking if they had seen her doing her various skills. We will try and find a barn in Cairo where she can take lessons

This week DH has to work but the kids and I will be having fun with my mom and stepdad and enjoying some truly lovely weather.