Do you have the time to listen to me whine?

Yesterday we packed our crate and got a phone call.

The crate was the easy part. We loaded all of our earthly posessions in a crate bound for Taiwan. The crate will be stored in a warehouse until we leave for Taiwan and then shipped over the ocean. It will arrive about 3-6 weeks after we do. Until it gets to our new home, we will be staying in furnished- temporary housing.

The phone call was from the Taiwan economic office in Houston saying that they must send our application to a different government agency in order to be approved for a resident visa. So, while we and all our earthly possessions await the blessed "resident visa" we ask for you to remember us. We have an itinerary set for us to leave on October 24 but the closer we get to that date without a visa the less likely it is that we will leave as scheduled.

Jeff will be traveling for two weeks in early December. The longer we are delayed, the less chance there is that our crate will have arrived and we will be set up in our home before Jeff is gone. This can be a little more difficult in a new foreign country than it might be in a more familar setting. New language, new home, new surroundings, new places to find groceries- a whole new way of life. It takes an adult several months to adjust to all that change let alone two little kids. It would just be really nice if we were already setup in our permanent, stable dwelling before we were minus one integral member of the family.

But, regardless of how it all works out, we are going to have a grand adventure anyways.