One Month Until We Leave!

Well today is exactly one month until we leave on July 24th. We’ve made a lot of progress. Most of our stuff is gone and gone through. Most of our bills are paid. Our finances are pretty set. We got $10 American dollars changed into $70 HK dollars (just to see what it looked like). They have several different versions of each bill apparently. We rented a video from the library on Hong Kong and Shang Hai. What an amazing place. There are peaceful countrysides and super crowded cities. I am ready to explore it all! I checked out our airline Cathay Pacific and it seems cool. While we still have a lot to do, we are really getting things done. I am mostly over the emotional “parting with my possessions” and now I just have to face saying goodbye to family and friends. I just have to remember that it’s not forever AND long distance relationships can work if it really matters.

I am a little nervous about my “new job” but looking at the kindergarten school calendar for 2010-2011 school year I see a lot of similarities to Simis where I was teaching before. So that is comforting. I know God will be on my side as He has been through this whole experience so far, so I’m only going to be a little nervous! I know Ernie feels the same way.

Well, if you’re interested in knowing more about Hong Kong check out this website: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/login.html
Let the intro play, then click on United States on the bottom. Pretty cool!
Well, the next time I post it will probably be almost time to go. Thanks for following our adventure!

Stuff and Joy

Okay, so about the stuff. I’ve been carefully going through our stuff because we don’t have a lot of storage space nor can we ship a lot so I have to pare down and condense everything and figure out what we want to sell at the yard sale. And what I am discovering is that we have a lot of stuff that just sits in boxes in the closet doing nothing. Last night, I was going through boxes and I was thinking oh my goodness look at all the stuff I just store in the closet for no good reason, or look at the stuff I could totally be using or could have used but I didn’t even realize we had it. And I came to the conclusion of what is the point of all of that?

That is where the joy comes in. While this is still an overwhelming and stressful process I am finally starting to find the joy in all of this. It was a true joy to get rid of so much junk last night. Box after box I sorted and dumped and it was great! Although my second bedroom “staging area” as I call it is more chaotic then ever it’s all right! I wonder why I thought I’d gotten rid of stuff before? Because clearly I hadn’t. And it’s nice to know that when we come back we will have only what’s important and we’ll start fresh. I think everyone should do that at some point whether you are moving or not. I bet everyone has “junk drawers” or “junk boxes” filled with unneccessary stuff that you “might” use at some point but because it’s out of sight it’s out of mind and you never will use it. Anyway, here’s my answer to the question everyone asks these days ­ “Are you all packed up yet?” Not quite but we’re getting there!

Just testing this out

We are enjoying our first week off of school for the summer. I thought I'd be free but I've been busier then I expected. We joined LA Fitness so we could get in shape for our big journey. We've ordered contacts for both of us and new glasses for Ernie. We priced some luggage and picked up some other things we'll need. It's strange how your perception changes when you know you won't be here very long.

I have been working on getting files off of my old mac and doing digital things but tonight I might actually start going through stuff in one of our closets. Even though I started sorting stuff in my classroom months before school was out I was still in a mad rush at the end and that can't happen when we leave so instead of ignoring it I am going to embrace it early on. It's good to sort, organize and get rid of stuff anyway. In a sick sort of way I actually enjoy it...anyway, that is where are at for now.

Countdown until we leave on July 24th: 57 days