'china shipping'

With Creative Escape being over, and behind me… I knew that it would be time to face the packing music. The reality of the whole things kinda hit me like a ton of bricks…and eric and I started the process of deciding what we would be packing into the 20 foot container that would be delivered last Thursday. Just the thought of packing up what we would need to make our lives as normal, and comfortable as possible over the next year was daunting enough, let-alone the actual process of weeding out all the stuff… and categorizing it as: donating to DI, packing in the container for shipment, packing for when we return and garbage!! NIGHTMARE efforts!! We started out with the scrapbook room…trying to decided what would be needed, and what was unnecessary was a major project. I wound up with about 9 bins full of scrapbook stuff packed. (do I really need all this crap? I better do A LOT of scrapbooking!!) I am planning on having a dedicated scrapbook room, that I plan on painting a delightful color of pink! And finding clever ways to organize it with the help of IKEA. Then onto the clothes and toys and garage stuffs… the container arrived Thursday at 11am, and would be picked up at 5am Friday. (scary lot to do in that time). We did some damage at Costco, Target and Babies R us for non-perishable food items, diapers, wipes, formula and baby food… we worked until about 2am and got everything in and strapped down. SO… it’s on the water as we speak. Now we are just left with the rest of the house to pack or purge. It actually feels really good to get rid of stuff that is unnecessary. It’s so amazing how you accumulate so much!
This last week will be an emotional and busy one. We are excited… one more week!

just the beginning!

Things have a way of working themselves out… even when there are a lot of things, and they need a lot of work! I think that this is a month I will never forget. Things kicked off with me jetting over to Beijing for a big 2-day stay. Actually, we didn’t ‘stay’ anywhere for very long. The whole objective of the visit was for me to get a ‘visual’ on what we were all getting into! I felt that in order to better pack and mentally prepare for what was ahead, it would be necessary to see what we had to work with. Eric was already over there…I left Thursday night on the 1:40am flight from LA to Beijing. The same flight that we will be on when we go on the 24th. It arrives in Beijing at 5am, just as the sun is coming up. Eric met me at the curb and we jumped in another taxi and went to the house. I have attached a few photos so that you could get an idea of where we will be living. It is a really spacious house, and will accommodate us perfectly. I wanted the chance to check out stores and grocery stores to see what would be available when we got there. I was told, and reassured, that anything that I am looking for can be found. Just may take a little work. There is an IKEA. We visited there, and walked through along with what seemed like a million locals. Ikea must be a huge hit there! (as it is EVERYWHERE)… I mean, seriously, besides grape jelly, what can you possibly need that you can’t find at IKEA!! I was thrilled to see that it carries the same exact stuff we have here. So setting up house will be do-able! After racing around all day, all over Beijing…we had dinner with a family that has been living there for about a year. They were able to share tons of valuable info… and besides the fact that the jet lag and exhaustion and –stress- of the whole experience was giving me a brain cloud, I was starting to see how this was all going to work out great! After dinner, we walked around a bit, the temp was perfect and it felt good to walk and talk-brainstorming our strategies of getting things ready and over there. We ended up at a ‘spa’ kind of place where we had 90 minute foot massages…I believe it cost around $20 US for both of us… that rocked. It was a great end to a very overwhelming, but good day. Sunday morning we got up and over to the church. Church is held in a high rise building. I would guess there were over 200 people there. Everyone was SO welcoming and warm. Very literally, after being at church, all of my worries seemed to be set to rest. It’s amazing all the families that have made Beijing their home. I sat through sacrament meeting, crying… not sure if it was the over-tired situation, or the relief that everything would be ok, that the church truly is a world-wide church and I felt safe, and supported! Every question that I may have could be answered by these people. How awesome is that? It happened to be fast and testimony meeting, and it was very cool to hear everyone’s love for Beijing, and the unique experiences they were having. We were invited to lunch at the Lewis’ (branch pres family)… and then off to the airport. I slept 10 of the 12 hour flight home, and arrived about 8pm, in time to go back to bed. Worked out great, as I didn’t have too many beats available to skip! Here are some photos of the house…it’s in the Shun Yi, and the name of the development is Quan Fa.