My new hair...

So, because we will be in China for 9 months at a time, I will not be able to maintain my blond hair. So I had my hair colored to about it's natural color, maybe a touch darker. Here's a before shot: (ignore my fat face), but very blond.


Here's my new color: Yes, my roots were almost that dark. It's about the same color as my sister's.
You probably notice the little bit of odd color along the bottom. It's something fun I've wanted to do for a while. So I did. Here it is.

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PURPLE!!!!!!!

That's right. I put purple in my hair. Before we move to China it will be matched with the rest of my hair color. When I move home I will have long dark hair. Wow!!
So here you go. Purple hair.




What do you think?

Finality

A few things happened this week that makes the impending move more real than it has been to date.

• I taught my last Relief Society Lesson. I usually teach the 3rd Sunday, but for March's 3rd Sunday we will be in China on our "scouting trip." Then we move.
• The FBI charged our card for the Federal Background Check. Which means they did it.
• Work hired my replacement and I trained him today. I handed over my keys and everything.
  
• We found for sure renters who will stay the whole time we are gone.
  
• We made a decision about the dogs.
• We started buying some of the things we will need - like new hiking shoes.
• We had our dentist visits.
• We got our prescriptions update that we will need.
  

We leave so soon. I can hardly believe it. I think time is exponentially getting faster the closer we get. We often say to one another "So, we're moving to China. What in the world are we doing moving to China?" but we are truly excited. It's going to be amazing!

Apartment in China

Considering the amount of people in China and the size of Xiamen is 2.5 million, we are very lucky to be getting the accommodations we are. Here are some pictures of the apartment we will be living in. . We are living in the island of Xiamen. It's beautiful. I will post pictures of it after we visit and after we move there.

This is the building. We are on the 25th floor with a view of the bay

This is the entry way and Kitchen.

This is our bedroom. It's connected to a closed in balcony with a view.
This is our front room. There is another bedroom that will probably be used as my craft room while we are there. And for visitors.
This is part of the view. There is a government building going up on the left side of the picture. Unfortunately it's in the middle of the amazing view. But I can't complain.

Here's more of the view.

This is the bakery that is on the main floor of our building. I'm excited. I love breads!
I am excited. Knowing what our apartment looks like helps. There are still plenty of things I'm nervous about. Most of which deal with leaving and getting ready to be gone for so long, not being there. What do you think?

Wait a sec...

Didn't that have 7 more days on it only yesterday? ------------->

Yes it did. We moved our departure date up to April 12 to make the timing work for multiple reasons. So it did just get 7 days closer. Yikes.

Time is passing

I can't believe how quickly time is flying. We have only 66 days (as of today) until we move. 15 of those I am going to be out of town. We are up to our ears in things that we need to do - but it all takes time! Hurry, hurry... and wait.

Since I hope to document our life over there, maybe I'll document getting there too. Right now we are working on our travel visas and our resident visas. The travel visa is easy - you passport and your travel plans. The company is taking care of those. They are also taking care of the residency visa, but we have to get all the documentation put together for them.

We have to have:

• certified copies of our birth certificates
• certified copy of our marriage certificate
• passport photos
• passport
• FBI "no record" criminal back ground check - this means a background check that comes back empty - to do this you need unprocessed fingerprints. Fortunately we had 2 copies on hand because of our adoption paperwork - yeah you need them for that too. We are soooo on the grid.
  
• because we are getting work visas they need CV's (Sarah - that's a history of your work experience ;) )
• health checks DONE IN CHINA!! I'm nervous about this one. We are doing that on our upcoming trip in March. They are $110 a piece. Normal people would be fine but my medical history and like 100 pages. Daniel's is about 50. We aren't normal.

This may sound easy to prepare for - but do you have all the documentation needed on hand? We didn't. I suggest to you all that you have 2 certified copies of birth certificates for everyone in your house and a certified marriage certificate on hand. These types of documents are important. Keep them in a fireproof safe. We do now. You never know when you need them.

We are slowly starting to pack things away. We packed the two bookshelves in the living room and it took 6 rubbermaid bins. That's only a portion of our books. Yikes. We have painted the two rooms that really needed it. Next weekend I hope to do the finishing touches in our kitchen.

We also need to buy things for moving. Like 1 year of our drugs ($1,500 - thank you sick body) and new tennis shoes for hiking the area with coworkers. I need compression socks for the flights because I have a predisposition to blood clots. We need to buy me some luggage.

It's hard to pack your life up. I've never done it before. Heck, before I got married I hadn't moved since I was 7.

We really are excited. But I think I need xanax and some lunesta in the mean time.

I will be selling my piano in the middle of March. If you are interested please let me know. We are looking for $700 for it. It's in great shape and comes with a custom made bench by my father. Woooo. Awwwwee. Yes, that's right folks, a Joe Arave original.

We are also selling a desk ($50) and our bedroom set (Bedframe, double wide dresser and blanket chest for $350 or so.)

Spread the word. Thanks.