The Uncarved Blog

Well, the garage sale was a success, I guess. That is, the experience successfully convinced me never to have a garage sale in late July in Kansas ever again. Whew! It was hot! But we were able to sell some things that no one in our family had any use for. And we threw away a bunch of garbage that was just sitting there, taking up space. And we have a lot of stuff to donate to Salvation Army. Plus we made a few bucks in the process. So, I guess that’s a success.

For some reason, it took me until this morning to realize that we are moving out in a little more than a week. One week! That’s coming up fast! Ben and I began the real packing process this morning–not just the “wow-I-put-something-in-a-box-I’m-worn-out-for-the-day” packing process. We also set up a carpet cleaner to come and shampoo our carpets next Monday.

This is the stage of the game that’s a bit awkward. I want to pack up as much stuff as possible, but there are also things we just need to keep unpacked, because we’re going to use them for the next week. It’s hard to figure out which is which.

We also have some increasing anxiety right about now. I don’t have a visa yet, and we don’t have all the details of our housing situation in China figured out yet, so that’s something that needs to be sorted out. Unfortunately those problems can’t be solved until a couple of other, completely-out-of-our-hands things happen. So, we’re kind of in a weird, pressured, and waiting-for-things-to-happen kind of spot right now.

Nevertheless, the proximity of moving out of our Lawrence apartment–the first step in our transition to China–is making both of us pretty excited. We’ve been talking and thinking and writing about living in China for so long, we’re just ready to make it happen!