Sigh

I feel like lately everything has been an exercise in taking one step forward, two steps back.  We FINALLY arranged a timetable for our move back to the U.S., and then found a house to rent when we move back that is actually within our price range. And then, although my old job had agreed to the timetable and my new employer had also agreed to the timetable, I found out today that the timetable has been smashed to bits.  Current employer has decided they want me to stay until July.  New employer wants me there in May.  Yes, that sound you hear is my head exploding.

And honestly, you know what I am most worried about?  The house.  We found a PERFECT house.  I put the word out to people I know that we were looking for a place to live.  A friend of a friend who had a special circumstance and needed just the right people to rent their house gave me a call, and decided that we are those people who can deal with their special circumstance.  In exchange for taking care of some things for them, they are offering us their house at a fraction of market value.  Literally, I was praying that we would find something suitable for X dollars.  They proposed that we pay X dollars--EXACTLY the amount I had been praying about.  I mean, I wasn't even looking in that neighborhood because it is well out of our price range.  And it is zoned for a great school, and it has a yard, and it has plenty of room inside for all of us plus a guest room and maybe an office, and it's in a great neighborhood.  Honestly, I don't know if you believe in fate or kismet or whatever, but this was some serious alignment of the planets.  But now, with our arrival date in question, I am worried we are going to lose it.

Then there is the school issue.  We are playing the school lottery.  You have to prove residency by May 1.  I don't know if we'll be back by then.  If we aren't, and can't figure something out, then we would lose our spots, if we get in somewhere.

So now, we have to consider whether it might be best, between the house issue and the school issue, for my husband to go back to the U.S. before me.  Needless to say, I am not enamored with this idea. It means being a single mother during the most stressful part of the next few months:  the packing up and moving part.  And flying with the kids and six pieces of luggage and three carry-ons and two car/booster seats by myself, potentially.

I felt so much peace when I thought the schedule was worked out and we had a house.  And now, I feel like I am standing at the bottom of a mountain again, and need to start climbing.