Moving Day, I

It seems true quite often - that on moving day, everything goes horribly wrong. From the vantage point of the couch in our hotel in Shenzhen, it all feels like water under the bridge. But a few hours ago...

1:30AM, Tuesday morning
Dave and I are still packing. The airline has given us a total allowance of 80kg. That is 176 pounds for 5 people to live off of for about 1 month. It took more creativity than we had on reserve by that time of night, and so we soon called it quits.

6:30AM, Tuesday morning
At this time of morning, the sun was up. And so, Annika, Sophia and I were up as well. I'm hoping the black-out curtains in this hotel will live up to their name, and give us all a late morning! I got right to the packing.

9:45AM
The girls are packed in the car with our friend and driver, Jordon. They've been waiting out there for 20 minutes, because I can't get things finished enough to walk away for a few hours. Finally I run to the car, and arrive ten minutes late for our 10:00 doctor appointment.

10:40AM
Annika needed one blood test for her Medical Clearance. Once Dave gets the call, everything must be in order for our family to go directly to post. Annika's paperwork was entirely in order, except for her weak Du. Hoping this would be a quick job, I brought everyone with me to the hospital, and carried a long list of stops afterward. We sat in the waiting room for 30 minutes, because no one could figure out what the test was or how to order it. Once it came, things began happening. We were all shuffled into a small room, where they explained that at 3 months, an infant is too young to have blood drawn from a syringe. Rather, they enter a needle directly into her vein and allow the blood to drip out at its own pace. This will take over 5 minutes, they explained. It still makes me feel queazy to think about it, and it made me cry to hover over a baby in such pain for so long. Especially as her sisters beat each other in the background.

12:00NOON
After billing problems, we finally left the hospital. It should come as no surprise that the billing problems were never resolved. We picked up baby formula delivered from the states by a good friend (thank again, Deanna!) and headed to lunch. Dave promised to meet us at 12:30.

12:20PM
We arrived at the restaurant.

12:30PM
Sophia explains that she needs to go pee. Annika begins crying incessantly. Sophia can not go pee alone, because the restaurant only has squat pots. I can not possibly leave a crying baby in the middle of a restaurant, only watched by her 4 year old sister. So Sophia has to wait until Daddy arrives - any minute, we are sure.

12:40PM
Annika is buckled into her car seat, and I am swinging her in large arcs. This is the only way to keep her quiet, poor girl. Sophia was standing on her chair. But now the chair is lying on its back, and her face has hit the floor. The staff have run to her (and I am swinging a car seat, and so unable to move swiftly), so I can not get through to her. Hurt, scared, and now embarassed. Supermom that I am, I pick her up to sing to her without missing a beat in the car seat swing for Annika.

12:50PM
Dave arrives to a quiet and orderly table. Quiet because both girls have been summarily scolded, warned (and completely convinced) that any noise from either of them will result in their eating dinner at another table.

1:30PM
Another stop at a friend's house, picking up Lilly's old crib. Mei Mei will need it, so it must travel soon to Shenzhen.

2:30PM
The girls begin quiet time, and I run a few last errands. When I return to Shanghai, it will be late on the night before movers arrive. Anything I want packed ought to be in the house when I arrive, so that shopping needed to happen today. Jordon zipped me around town, and I accomplished nearly everything.

4:30PM
After good-byes to Wendy, and all of the folks in our lane, we took off. Five large bags, 3 car seats, 2 strollers, and 8 carry-ons.

6:00PM
We sit to eat at an airport cafe. Nothing tasted good, but we had a lovely view of the runway.

6:30PM
Our flight is schedule to depart.

7:15PM
Our flight departed

9:30PM
We landed in Shenzhen.
We realize that Shanghai is quite a Western city, and that we have landed in China. People push and crowd. There are no Western toilets - only squat pots, with suspiciously wet floors surrounding. But a driver is waiting, and helps wheel the luggage out so we can carry our tired girls.

11:30PM
We are finally in our hotel room, for the night. We've reserved a 2-bedroom serviced apartment for the rest of the month, but apparently someone else came earlier tonight. So they gave it away. We're not sure the purpose of our credit card security deposit, if they did not plan to hold our room. So, no unpacking this evening. Just digging through all 13 pieces of luggage for the bits and pieces we need to make it through the night. Tomorrow, we will move again. But hopefully after a very good night's sleep had by all.

Overall, really, we can count the day as a success. Once we were joined by Daddy, things began to work much smoother. We kept both Jordon and Wendy busy all day long, making me so thankful for their constant help! The transition into our new home in Shenzhen will certainly be more difficult, without either of them around to help. And now, tomorrow each of our girls has the chance to meet their teachers and see their classrooms. This will be the make-or-break for Lilly, so pray that it goes well.

12:47AM, Wednesday morning
I'm exhausted, and going to sleep.