The Agony and the Ecstasy

This weekend was rough. There was sweat; there were tears…Fortunately, no blood.

 

As you know by now, we are planning a move to China this fall. This is different from moving across country in many ways. Not only are we getting rid of almost everything except clothing, the paperwork is intense. Before I buy our tickets to Beijing, I am waiting for us to have our work visas in-hand. Before we can get our work visas, we need approval from the Chinese government. Before we get the government approval, we need our Chinese employers to officially offer the jobs, and before they can officially do that, they need our U.S. criminal background check.

This weekend, we went back to Brett’s hometown to get the background check, only to be told by the person doing it that it may take 4-6 weeks! She followed that with, “It doesn’t give a time on the form, so I could be wrong, but…” 

Honestly, on our end, things have been moving along so smoothly that it might have been possible to move in mid-September. If we don’t get U.S. approval until August, and then still have to go through the school in Beijing, the government in Beijing, and the Chinese embassy in the US, we may not even have visas until the end of September!

That is, in my mind, the worst-case scenario.

Even assuming we were misinformed about the timing of the background check, another wrench was thrown into the works by our residence development:

Obviously, when you break a lease, there is a penalty to be paid. This is another hiccup that was expected, but we have to look at ways to get them to reduce the penalty, find ways to work with them, or pay later… Right now it’s just a headache, BUT we need to give them an exit date 2 months in advance, which may now be impossible. Hopefully they will be okay with an approximation.

So really, all the “agonies” just mean questions need to be answered, and of course, paperwork waited for.

The Ecstasy part is that we accomplished a lot:

1. Background checks, of course
2. Collecting work references
3. Dropped off books with three different people
4. Delivered our Ball Python to his new owner
5. Donated all of our board games
6. Increased our online DVD library

AND we set up with another friend to come out this coming weekend with her van to take away some more furniture!

Our apartment is going to be empty and we won’t even know when we’re leaving.

The bedroom already echoes.