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.