Moving Day!!!



So we survived moving day! Thanks to all who prayed for us! It was an incredibly crazy day but it went off almost without a hitch. Our plan was to move all of our things this past Friday along with our friend Lisa's things since we were headed to the same place. Totally last minute a job finally worked out for our friend Maria so we added her stuff to the mix. We hired 2 trucks and 4 Chinese men to come do the moving and thought we were all set. Then we decided to add in 2 more stops to our trip for both Lisa and us to pick up some furniture that we were purchasing from other expats who were leaving. By this point we were getting quite the collection of stuff and were wondering if it would all fit in the trucks. So we were able to borrow a mini-van from a friend of ours for the day and began stuffing everything possible into that to leave more room in the trucks. Just when we thought we had it all planned out, Rob's university called and said that in order for us to get our visas renewed on time and have our passports in hand for our flight this thursday, we would need to accompany them to the police station on Friday for the renewal process. Then we were stumped........what to do? Our move would take all day long and we would never make it back on time. The move was already so complicated and the movers said they didn't have that much time any other day. So we enlisted the help of family and friends and our day ended up like this:




At 7:45am we piled ourselves and the kids into a teeny tiny spot in the mini van and directed the movers to our friends home to pick up and pay for some furniture. From there we had to shoot directly off to the police station with the kids and our van full of stuff, while Lisa and our great friend Colin accompanied the trucks to our home to load up all of our stuff. Then they were off to Lisa's home and 1 other home to pick up 1 last piece of furniture before making their way to the Ferry. Colin graciously agreed to spend the whole day accompanying the trucks for us. He was invaluable help! Meanwhile we drove quickly to Rob's university, only to wait 1 hour for a down computer system, while people ooggled our children. Robbie was ok with it but Maddie was pretty grumpy. Then we all managed to squeeze into the van with a teacher from Rob's school and drive to the police station where we waited another hour in line to get our paperwork processed. But PTL they are confident we will receive our passports and visas back the day before we fly out! Our friend Becky picked up the kids at the police station, took them out for lunch where they met Aunt Kenzie, and then taxied them back to Grandma & Grandpa's house where they spent the day with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kenzie, and Ella.



Meanwhile we drove as fast as we could via highway to try to beat the trucks to our new apartment. Thankfully the trucks were a bit delayed and we made it in time to pick up lunch and unload the van just as they were arriving. The movers were crazy strong and amazed us with their abilities. Our only hiccup of the day was that the door to Lisa's new place broke and needed a locksmith for repair, but it wasn't too major of a problem and was fixed so she could be moved in plenty of time. Meanwhile we did a quick clean of the apartment, put down our deposit at Robbie's preschool and then picked up the whole gang in our empty van for a highway drive back to QD. We dropped them all off, picked up the last of our suitcases from our old place, and made it into Grandma's house by 8:30pm. It was a crazy day but was amazingly uneventful for a moving day in China plus added in visa processing. We are so thankful!

Comments

  1. KatieJune 29, 2011 at 11:22 AM

    So thankful that everything went well! What an experience. It gives me so much peace to know that you know where you'll return to!

    ReplyDelete

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