I need an assistant

Today, Nick and I have spent HOURS working on various things for our upcoming 2-year relocation to Rome. We've been researching and strategizing on the following topics:

• airfare
• potential returns to the States while living abroad
• health insurance
• visas
• how to make money on the side
• apartments
• potential jobs for Nick
• moving our furniture out of our house
• finding somewhere to store it
• worth of our vehicles
• budgeting based on known income and known expenses

And the real to-do list is at least triple the size. This was just what was running through our minds today. So far, nothing is settled. Wait, I lied. My friend Agnes volunteered to drive us to the airport for our departure, whenever that may be. Good thing she has a big car! There will be two of us, two cats, four enormous suitcases, and whatever other carry-ons the airlines will allow. So, hooray! One thing checked off the list.

My major project of this afternoon has been researching health insurance for while we're living abroad. I've done a bit of this in the past, but more than anything I've been planning as if I would pay out of pocket for all of my medical expenses.

But today, I went through a list of seven potential insurance companies. I am a pretty intelligent person, but reading insurance policies just completely turned my brain to mush.

Most of these companies were easy to cross off of the list, as they all had a policy that the first 12-months of coverage would not include any coverage of a pre-existing condition (PEC), and diabetes is definitely on their lists of no-no diseases. Stick with these companies for a year, though, and apparently they're happy to start paying up?

I did find one, probably the one we'll be going with, who had a 6-month non-coverage of PECs. However, if I get a Letter of Credible Coverage from my current insurance company, stating how long I've been covered by them and chronicling my condition, then they will cover it.

Another company had some very wiggly language on PECs. First, they said that they would not cover any PEC for 12 months. Then it said that if I disclosed my PEC on my initial application, that it would be covered. And then it said that any PEC would be fully covered as long as I hadn't received any treatment or seen a doctor for said PEC in the last 12 months.

Are you dizzy yet? I am.

The more work I do on this move, the more buried I become in the logistics. And as I was explaining to a friend yesterday, so many things on this to-do list are nested. What I mean is that certain things cannot be done until certain other things are done. And pretty much everything is like that.

So here are the things I need in order to make this easier:

• A personal assistant to make the dozens of phone calls and hundreds of decisions
• A winning lottery ticket

Yes, I'm complaining. And yes, I do realize how fortunate we are to have this opportunity. I know that it will be such an incredible experience. The getting there is just a bit overwhelming. And exhausting. And endless. Except that it isn't endless. We're leaving in just about two months! I know that it is going to take many, many days like this in order to accomplish everything that must happen in order for us to tie up all loose ends. I've just got to figure out how to keep my sanity in the process.