Moving Day - Thursday 2 July 2009

Today is the big day! The first container has arrived and we are scheduled to meet the movers at our new home at 8:30 am. Everyone was up and ready to go easily because we are so excited to get our things and settle in to our new home in Belgium.

As we approached our neighborhood my phone rang and it was our new neighbor Chemayne letting me know that the movers had already arrived about 20 minutes early! I am shocked, most people these days whether in America or Belgium are late, not 20 minutes early. As we arrived at the house the largest unloading crew was present, there were about 10-12 men in all. They did not speak English (only a tiny bit), but were very nice and friendly. Each one of them came and shook our hands and said Bon jour before beginning the day!

The day was going pretty well until we discovered that the "special" box with Stig's grandfather's silver vase (that he had received from his dad for his 40th b-day) and his coin collection; did not contain either. When our house was packed in Alabama the packer placed these items in a box while I took her picture and we placed them on the "high inventory" list. She also said that she was going to mark the box with the word "whatnots" so that we would know which box they were in, but it would not be obvious to anyone else. So when we were unpacking boxes in the kitchen and I saw this box I said, "you know what is in there". We continued to unpack the box and did not find either item. As you can imagine, we were alarmed that these items were missing, especially the vase that has so much sentimental value.

A while later an Account Manager for Team Allied came by the house to see how things were going. We have never had anyone do this during any of our other moves before, so this was a surprise. She wanted to know how the crew was doing and how our move was going so far. We started telling her that the crew that was there was doing a fine job, but we already had some "high inventory" items missing. We began telling our story about packing them and marking them in a special box and she was quite shocked to hear our entire story about our experience in Alabama during the packing and loading process. She told us that she would check on our second and third containers to see when they would arrive. She also said that she would be writing an email to the U.S. contact for Team Allied to complain about the disorganization surrounding our entire move. It helps to have someone understand the difficulties that we are going through.

A couple of hours after she left, another Team Allied Manager came over to see how our move was going. He was the Quality Controller and was there to check on the crew. I am impressed, we have moved several times in the U.S. and we have not ever had a manager of any kind come to check on the progress or quality of our move. Perhaps if we had, we would not have had such a terrible experience in Alabama!

As we were unpacking our sweet neighbor Chemayne and her five year old daughter came over and brought a pitcher of lemonade! She had made lemonade for the girls the week before when we were painting and the girls were so excited to have "real" lemonade. Michelle stayed at our house to play in the yard with the girls. It was soon lunch time so Stig went to the local bakery to get some sandwiches for us and then bought some things for the crew as well. When he returned we discovered that he had forgotten Adriana and Michelle's sandwiches. Bummer. I split mine with Adriana and Chemayne came over to get Michelle for lunch anyway. My girls went home with them and watched a movie while we did some more unpacking.

At the end of the day Stig and I were unpacking the kitchen and had already said good-bye to the foreman of the crew; and then here came the entire crew into our kitchen to say good-bye. Each one of the men shook each of our hands again and said good-bye to us! I am impressed with their politeness.

Tomorrow will be another day of unpacking and assembling furniture. The crew returned with fewer men to do this part of the move. Unfortunately, we received our bed frames, but no mattresses and box springs so they could not put things together properly. This also means that we cannot really move in because we do not have anywhere to sleep.

Again, the crew was very nice and very polite. Although it is somewhat difficult to have people (men) in your home trying to assist with things when you cannot communicate with each other. I started getting very good at charade's! I was very excited when they did find the silver vase! YIPPIE! No coin collection though. Bummer. I am still holding out hopes that it is in another box. I have not been able to solve the mystery as to why the vase was NOT in the box marked "whatnots" but in some other kitchen box! Since that was not where it was supposed to be, I am guessing that the coins are not either.

At the end of the day I received a call from our Account Manager regarding our move. We discussed the silver vase and the damages so far. She assured me that she had sent an email to the U.S. coordinator, but since it was a "bank" holiday in the U.S. she did not expect to get a response before Monday. (It was July 3) She also said that she had some very bad news to share with me that she was not looking forward to telling me. I was really getting nervous about that! She went on to say that our car (Honda Civic) had not been "blocked" (tied-down) properly in the container and was very damaged. She said that the damage was so bad that she didn't even want us to see it! She wanted our permission to send the car directly to the repair garage. You have got to be KIDDING!!!! Stig had just within that hour went to the bank and transferred payment for the shipping of that car! At this point, there has been so much damage to our Alabama house, personal items and now our car that the dollar amount far exceeds the cost of our move! We haven't even unpacked everything and it seems that each box seems to hold another disappointment. The Alabama packers did not even wrap all of our things in paper. Some of our things have been tossed into the boxes. They also tried to shove our things onto the truck/container in Alabama and they were not fitting so many of our boxes are crushed and damaged almost guaranteeing that the contents will be crushed and broken as well. I do still feel the Lord giving me a sense of calm regarding all of this, but I am starting to get very sad about my personal things such as baby pictures and my sister and her families pictures that have been destroyed by their negligence. I just keep trying to remind myself that they are only things.