Getting Blue Here Part 1- aka nothing is ever cheap or easy

Every step of the journey to Kuwait was difficult, but the greatest challenge in coming to Kuwait was getting Blue here.
We love our 12 year old cocker very dearly and couldn't imagine moving without her. We left her with a wonderful family while we lived in Italy, but couldn't bear to do it again, especially at her age. And Philip would be so sad to lose his best friend.
One option available to us was to pay $3000 to have Blue shipped from a pet shipper in San Francisco. They would take care of health certificates and such. I believe, but am not certain, that the price included paying for someone to fly to Kuwait with Blue. Airfare to Kuwait is $2000.
Another option would be to bring Blue with us. Since we were driving from CA to the east coast before flying to Kuwait, this would include Blue traveling cross country with us. Aaron's orders had him attending a school in Ohio for 3 weeks
Unfortunately, the car that I owned, a Ford Escape hybrid was not big enough to hold Blue's cage, our luggage, and Philip's car seat. Additionally, we weren't certain if it would be wise to have a hybrid in Kuwait, one of the wealthiest oil producing nations. Additonally, Aaron was worried about the degree of safety a small SUV would provide for us as we drove on some of the most dangerous roads. I seem to be using a lot of superlatives to descrive Kuwait. But imagine what you get when you comine great wealth with cheap oil. This past weekend we navigated the roads with two corvettes who used the highway as a their own personal race track, zipping down the road to get off at an exit and then zip back up the road.
So we began the search for a new car. Much to my horror, we ended up purchasing a Toyota 4Runner.
I knew that in order for Blue to fly she would need to have paperwork from the vet dated less than 10 days prior to our flight. We would be leaving CA more than 10 days prior to our flight. I decided that I would try and get our local vet to fill out the paperwork and then ask another vet to do the same paperwork when we learned from which city we would be departing. At this time we had a lot of ball up in the air and not much confirmation on anything. We could be flying out of NYC, Baltimore, DC, Norfolk, Atlanta, or Jacksonville.
In mid-Aug. Aaron would drive away to go to Ohio for a 3 week school. Philip and I would be joining him for the last two weeks. Two days before he left, in a fit of pique, I told Aaron that it was all too much for me and I didn't want to go anymore. Philip and I would just stay in California where everything was nice and easy. The next day, the day before Aaron drove off to Ohio, we received an e-mail from Kuwait saying that Aaron's billet was not accompanied afterall. Oh No! I quickly realized that I did want to go, that I didn't want to be separated from Aaron... to be continued