Last week was a whirlwind of events, and this week looks to be even crazier... followed by another busy week visiting my sister in NYC, then another busy week with multiple family members in town. Fortunately, I had an incredibly low key weekend to recuperate and prepare myself for the onslaught.
But I'm really not complaining, because things have been going so much better than I thought possible. We made our payments for our IVF cycle and my fertility medications, and much to our great shock, the total came to just a little over half of what we had budgeted. Partially this is because we were initially planning on the multiple IVF cycle payment plan, so deciding to just go with the one cycle dropped our payments by about $5000. Then there was the fantastic news that Tricare will cover part of the medication, dropping that payment about $2000 from our estimate. Then, when we went to the clinic last week to sign some consents and get our finances in order, we were told that they had had a meeting with Tricare just the day before and the company had agreed to cover the $900 room fee.
It's funny how when you're preparing yourself for a bill in the five digits, a total in the four digits seems like pocket change in comparison. I mean, a LOT of pockets full of change, but you know. It softens the blow.
Still, we haven't quite cleared the financial obstacles ahead of us, so we aren't blowing our ravaged, but still intact nest egg on a round the world cruise or anything. We hope against hope that we'll be one cycle wonders, but just in case we aren't, it's good to know that we've got a small buffer to help us through another cycle.
Then there's our beautiful, beloved Charleston home which we're planning to put on the market in mid-February. We met with our realtors last week, and while they helped us feel a bit more optimistic that our house will sell fairly quickly, there's always the chance that we'll be responsible for two stateside mortgages as well as a steep deposit (usually one or two months rent) and rent payments in Germany. But they seemed reasonably confident that we'll be able to at least get our money back on the house, and if we're lucky maybe a little more.
We've been spending each weekend for most of January going through each room of our house and making brutally difficult decisions about what will come to Germany, what will stay in storage in the US and what can go to consignment shops or Goodwill. It's absolutely astounding the massive amount of stuff that accumulates with time. We have only been here for two years and don't have an attic or a basement, so I honestly have no idea how all of this extra stuff has been floating around our house all this time. But we are making progress, and I only have a few closets left to purge and plenty of time before the movers arrive.
I've also been working quite a bit, and still enjoying every minute of it. I'm nannying four days a week, and with additional as-needed babysitting jobs, I'm typically working five or six days each week. I'm very proud to say that with just a couple more weeks of work, I will have earned enough just from my jobs to cover our fertility meds. The only regret I have is that I didn't get into this business a long time ago!
This week is full of more work, more home improvements, and lots of fun times with friends. We've only got a little time left before our life changes dramatically in multiple ways, so I'm trying very hard to live each day to the fullest and not wish away the now in exchange for the unknown future. Times they are a'changin'!
