The TO-DO lists

Ah, lists. Some people love them, some people hate them. Some people hate how much they love them. That’s me. I’m addicted to lists – grocery lists, to-do lists, packing lists. And let me tell you, this adventure started with many a list.

There was so much that we had to think about, and most things fell into one of two categories – what we had to do to prepare to leave, and what we had to do to prepare to arrive. The list is longer and more detailed than anyone needs to know, but here were the basics:

Preparing to leave:‍

• Rent out our house
• Pack up – decide what items to store, and what to bring; move out
• Arrange for all well – child visits, other doctors / dental visits
• Get requisite vaccines
• Forward / arrange forwarding of mail
• Cancel subscriptions / other things that aren’t needed while we’re gone (e.g., car insurance)

Preparing to arrive:

• Identify what school the kids should attend*
• Identify housing*
• Arrange visas / migratory documents*
• Identify points of contact / friends / touch points in CDMX
• Identify cell phone provider / plan
• Identify health care situation (insurance, medical providers, local hospitals)

The items with an asterisk were by far the most complicated part of the plan, but there was a general order – we needed to identify a school in order to identify the neighborhood we wanted to live in / find an apartment; and we needed to make sure we got into a school before we started the visa process. These are the things we started ~6 months before we left (starting with school selection); much of the rest could be figured out along the way.

The to-do lists helped to keep me organized and sane along the way. They did (and still do) help me to feel less overwhelmed. Now that we are here (more on that next!) I still have myriad lists – but now they include “Mexican musicians to see live” and “Weekend trips to take” – and those are much more fun lists to make!