We're moving to Italy!! - oh wait.. there has been a little hiccup in our new adventure

Back in December, Bryan got a job offer in Italy. We were all set to go... The movers were supposed to pack us up in late March. Our house was rented out for April 1st. We were supposed to fly out with a one way ticket on April 27th (even Kiwi had her ticket for the flight).  Wow! If you would have told me in January that our move to Italy would be on hold because of a worldwide Health Pandemic, I would have told you that you were crazy! And the idea that the area that we are moving to was one of the hardest and fastest hit places in the world, makes the idea even harder to comprehend.

I was going to start this blog after we arrived in Italy, but since I have so much free time on my hands and since my family enjoys looking back at these blogs with great happiness, I thought why not begin at the very beginning of this adventure - hiccups and all!

The state of our recent life looks something like this....Bailey and her best friend came here from Quebec for Spring break at the beginning of March. They were here a week and had a great time and then flew back up to Canada to finish their Spring Semester. The plan was that in April, Bailey would fly directly to Venice for the Summer. Instead, not even a week after her spring break, Bailey was back home in Florida, taking online classes through her University until the end of the school year. Camden also had his Spring break planned in March, inviting two of his friends from Germany, and one from Georgia to our Condo for the week. The day before his friends from Germany were supposed to fly out, the President announced a European travel ban and then sadly it became a quick no go for his Spring break guests. His one friend from Georgia still came and they had a fun time, but I was a nervous wreck, knowing that he and his friends were probably not social distancing quite up to my standards. ;-). Meanwhile, Mia's friend and her family were supposed to arrive for a long weekend of goodbyes before we moved... everything began to shutdown and we cancelled that plan with great sadness. Five days before our movers were to arrive, we got a standard e-mail saying all moves are on hold for 60 days - yikes! A bit of a hiccup for sure!!!

And so here we are in our house waiting in limbo, with a new temporary move out date that might be changed at any time, and a visa that has yet to come back due to the closures in Italy. We are in our own beds though (for now), in a house all together and certainly can't complain. The weather has been amazing and the tourists have all been kicked out, so it has actually been a dream. Bailey finished school up last week, Camden finishes next week, and Mia still has a few weeks to go. Bryan is working from home and we are having a lot of fun with our neighbors at our semi nightly "safety meetings" where we all sit outside 6 feet apart enjoying one another's tales of what has become our quite boring lives! We are all healthy, content, and together!

At the beginning of all of this mess... this was my friends' son in Germany working for the Red Cross at the Hospital

My friend and I doing our "Italian Class" 6 feet apart :-)

This trooper has been so great during all of the craziness!!

This was comical - a moving truck showed up even though we had already cancelled! Talk about panic - we were quite surprised! 

It was so great to have Bailey home!

Our "safety meetings" were the best!

In the midst of Covid - we had a forest fire up the road from us - and so sadly 32 homes were destroyed :-(

The calm before the tourists came back!!

Facetime, Zoom, Whatsap, and Skype saved the day! It was so awesome to be able to stay in touch!

At the very beginning of the shut down, Camden stayed at the Condo because he was the only one having to go to work each day. He would come over each afternoon to visit - one day he surprised us with Culver's custard!! :-)

One benefit of our move being delayed is that Mia got her Driver's Permit!

Love this guy!!

Mia baked all summer - her Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake was by far my favorite!

We practiced driving a lot...

Our awesome friends single handedly saved the neighborhood by providing masks (both N-95's and homemade as seen here), wipes, hand sanitizer, and practically anything else you can imagine. They even had Oxygen Concentrators on reserve in case any of the neighbors needed them!! 

The beautiful flowers still grew (I smile because the lady that owned our home before us was an amazing gardener and her flowers still pop up all year long)

The week before life changed drastically - little did we know Bailey would be back in a week and we wouldn't be moving until the end of September!