On the Move

My mom is always getting on me about finding things to blog about. Be careful what you wish for, Mom...

On Friday, we got notice from our landlord that they needed us out of our apartment ASAP, because they need to move in pronto. Shénme?!

Bless my dear husband, who was incredibly on the ball and within an hour or two had showings lined up for the following day. Luckily, Marty's parents are here, and they were able to watch the girls while we spent Saturday afternoon looking at apartments. It was like déjà vu. I felt like it was our first week in China all over again. We looked at 9 or 10 places and none of them felt like home.

On Sunday, I woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep because I was just so sad about moving. I couldn't imagine our family living somewhere else. This apartment has been our home for the past 3 years. When I finally got out of bed, I walked from room to room, imagining each space empty, without our personal touches. Without the smell of fresh sheets. Without the sound of little girls running around and playing. And it was really a lot like some of the other places we had seen the day before, after all.

Later that morning, we decided to take another look at one of the apartments we saw the day before. I started to picture where our things would go, which bedroom would belong to which girl, where our furniture might fit. And suddenly it didn't seem so bad. We were incredibly fortunate to have help from school. One of our awesome school liaisons came and helped us with the contract signing, acquisition of boxes, and arranging for the guys from school to help move everything over. When it was all said and done, it was ridiculously painless. We move in on Saturday. We'll be in a neighborhood and complex near lots of other teachers. We'll still be close to school, and much closer to restaurants and grocery shopping. The apartment is smaller than the one we're in now, but on the plus side, that means it's cheaper, too. And actually, the girls are pretty excited about moving! (Probably because they don't have to do any of the packing...)

I guess it's a good trial run for what's to come. We've decided not to renew our contact at SIS for another year, so this is our final nine months in Shekou. So, this move is a good chance to start purging and prepping for the bigger move to come.

Here's a sneak peek at the new place.

future play room - right inside the entryway to the left

dining room

kitchen - small balcony with laundry is just off to the left

new furniture (will need to do something about those pillows...) 

master bath - a bathtub was a must - Ani's not a hug fan of showers

master bedroom 

second bath

The girls' rooms are pretty bare at the moment. Just a bed in Ev's room and nothing in Ani's since we own all of the furniture and will be moving it over. More pictures to come as we settle in and make this our home for our final days in China.