Why Spain? Why Valencia? And Why Did It Take Three Years? Part 3 of 3

I’m sharing the challenges we faced in moving to Spain to let you know it may not be easy, but it is absolutely doable! It takes patience, timing and lots of research, and every so often something might be easier than expected. Here’s one of those cases. 

Need to catch up on the whole story? Here are links to Part 1 and 2:

Why Spain? Why Valencia? And Why Did It Take Three Years? Part 1 of 3

Why Spain? Why Valencia? And Why Did It Take Three Years? Part 2 of 3

Twenty years ago when we moved to Rome, I had to show up and wait to physically present every document required for my visa at Houston’s Italian Consulate; they didn’t take appointments.This time around (maybe due to COVID-19) we could not show up in person until we had an appointment, and you couldn’t get an appointment until they reviewed your documents. So John scanned and emailed each of our documents to the Spanish Consulate as he had them ready. If something wasn’t right, he was notified and could fix it and resubmit. This was much easier especially because we lived in San Antonio now not Houston.  

In late June of 2021, we were given an in-person appointment with the Spanish Consulate to present our visa applications and all of the required documents. We booked a hotel and drove the three hours to Houston the night before to make sure we didn’t miss our morning time slot. 

After checking in, we were instructed to slide each of the three thick packets, one for each of us under the Plexiglass partition and asked to take a seat in the waiting area. I expected that we’d be called in to go over the documents with them, but twenty minutes later we were called back to the Plexiglass window and told that everything was in order except one item that needed updating. Sending it electronically was acceptable, so John did that within an hour. They told us that all of the documents including our passports would be sent to Valencia to be reviewed, and we would be notified in about two months if our visas were approved. My heart sank. This timeline meant that we might not know until late August, and school was starting the first week of September. We left the Consulate feeling relief that all the documents were in order and in their hands, but still on pins and needles about the timing. 

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long. To our astonishment and absolute delight, we received an email two weeks later saying our visas were approved! YES! Happy dance! OMG! It’s finally going to happen! The visas would arrive around the middle of July so we were confident our flights for July 29 would work. We would have five weeks to get settled in the new apartment before school would start. 

Next we had to take downsizing to a whole new level. To store, to ship, or to shuck? After much debating and conferring with each other and friends, we decided no storage unit… at all. We were not going to burden family and friends with stuff either like we did when we moved to Rome. My friend Kaci summed it up best, “Your tastes change.” When she had stored household items for several years, she said she “did not want one single thing” that she had paid to store. That was powerful. 

My thinking was we are moving to Spain possibly for the long term; either we ship it or give it away. I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars to store stuff we didn’t love enough to keep with us. It was brutal, but felt necessary. Our furniture was old and not something we’d buy again today, so we were fine with letting all of that go, besides our apartment in Spain was already furnished. 

I bought 20 medium-sized boxes at Lowe’s and started packing the stuff we wanted to keep and ship to Valencia. In the end, we shipped 27 boxes and two bikes. For years I had been a frustrated minimalist trying to downsize our belongings, but when you have the room, you keep the stuff, you know, just in case. When you’re paying $$$$ to ship, your decision making is suddenly incredibly focused. The company which would put our belongings on a cargo ship picked up our 27 boxes and one bike two days before we left San Antonio. John expedited the other bike so it would arrive sooner.  

On July 28, after a donation truck picked up everything we didn’t ship, sell, or already give away, we packed our VW Jetta with six small suitcases and two cats and headed to a pet-friendly hotel near Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. My friend Cynthia, who lived in Houston, inquired a few months before what we were going to do with our car. Her son would need to buy one soon, so I had arranged to sell the car to Frank when we left —another example of how things just fell into place. We were able to use our car until the last minute we needed it and then turn the keys over to Cynthia at the hotel the night before our flight. 

We departed Houston the next day as planned. Houston International outbound was deserted, but when we got to Paris’ foreign arrivals, the lines were crazy long and slow moving causing us and a lot of other people to miss connecting flights. After enduring an eight-hour layover with cats in their carriers, we arrived in Valencia. Our COVID QR codes were scanned, and at last we were waved through security and were soon outside taking in that gorgeous Valencian blue sky. John called our property locator, and we took a taxi to our new apartment where Graham met us with the keys. Before he arrived, I ran down the street and took the photo above of our new neighborhood. It felt surreal, and sometimes still does, but it didn’t take long for it to start feeling like home too.

Disclaimer: I included a link to Graham who helped us rent the apartment because he’s excellent and I’m happy to recommend his services. I receive no compensation for doing so.

Need to catch up on the whole story? Here are links to Part 1 and 2:

Why Spain? Why Valencia? And Why Did It Take Three Years? Part 1 of 3

Why Spain? Why Valencia? And Why Did It Take Three Years? Part 2 of 3

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Want to know more about our move and living in Rome? I wrote a book! Times New Roman: How We Quit Our Jobs, Gave Away Our Stuff & Moved to Italy