Let me begin by recounting an experience that is probably going to leave your head shaking, especially if you are a military family. Military families understand how to move themselves, their family, and all their belongings across the country and across the world. Part of that process is identifying high dollar value items prior to the move so these items can receive special notation on your moving manifest.

This all seems very obvious and simple.

Until it isn’t.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I came late to military life. My wife and I were full-on civilians until my 45th year on this planet. Unless my wife works until I’m 91, the civilian portion of my life will always be the majority and dominant part of my life. The problem I had with identifying high dollar items prior to the move is that many of these items are simply possessions of mine that have been with me my whole life. These are possessions that hold far more emotional than monetary value, and because of this, I forget to note them on moving manifests.

I’m not sure why I suddenly thought of the coin collection in our new home in Germany in the middle of the unpacking mess across three levels. But I did. And then I started to search for the coin collection.

If you would like to see what I found, you can find the rest of the story at the Army Wife Network here.