A long slow farewell and a new place to lay our heads

 When we decided to have great Spanish adventure we also made the decision to sell our house where we had spent the last 9 years. It is by far the longest I have lived anywhere as an adult and the 2nd longest time that I have lived anywhere during my life. It was not a decision that we made lightly. But there was no way that we could handle being landlords from another country. It made the lead up to the actual move a bit of a precarious balancing act of deciding what to bring and when to ship it with the fact that we were still working and in school. We powered through.

Our amazing neighbors in Louisville sent us off with such love and kindness. These are the friends with whom we weathered the pandemic, gathered in back yards and driveways with, who trick-or-treated with us, house- and pet-sitted, simply the best. We cannot express the gratitude for the generous gifts and cards filled with with inspiring words and hopes for our future. We hope to continue hearing from all of them and visits too. We also hope the new neighbor will be a good fit and love the neighborhood as much as we did. 

Our work farewells were also bittersweet with the outpouring of well wishes and generosity (which allowed us to take an extra suitcase on the plane and to ship some forgotten items). I can say with all honesty that I miss the people and hope they stay in touch. (But not working for a month has brought my stress levels down considerably.)

Once our possessions were packed into a container, Carlos's mother hosted us for 3 weeks. We were still wrapping up our last few weeks of work in Louisville. I would like to note that she hosted us immediately after having another houseguest for a month...while she was in the middle of selling her previous house. This was no small inconvenience on her part. It was a wonderful leaping off point that allowed us to say goodbye to the Louisville family 20 or so times 😀 

Powered up on so many hugs and well wishes we rented a car and took off on the 23rd of June, when Carlos completed finished his in-person work. By some stroke of luck we agreed to an offer on the house as we were leaving Louisville to head Brattleboro and South Hadley for the northern stops of our farewell tour. We spent several days catching up with with are old friends and family in New England. Again days filled with laughter, good food and great people....and ping-pong. It is from there that we officially embarked on our journey. 

The last 2 months have been an extended transition of sleeping on the floor, couch surfing, and hotel hopping. We are ready to settle and have a place to call our own again. As of Wednesday that is a thing. At 5PM Spanish time (6 hours ahead of EST) we signed a lease on an apartment! In a fun coincidence, the offer we accepted on the house back in June also closed Wednesday, at 5pm EST. One door opened as another closed. Consider this your official invitation to visit. Hospedaje Mason Wehby is open. Email us and we will send you the address. (We'll add pictures of our flat ASAP.)