Christmas has come early!

Our shipment finally came—just a few days short of 4 months of waiting.  Four months of Spartan living; of learning to make do, do without, borrow, substitute, or just go buy it—if it was available.

 The container truck was too large to be allowed into our area, so there was a "ferry" truck.

 They loaded boxes onto little trolley cars for the ride up the elevator.

 We were surprised that everything made it--well, we are still missing the drum pad from the Wii (but the base is here), and Kevin's brand new quad scripture.

 But even the wheat made it!  There were only 10 or 15 boxes opened for inspection (they used a different color tape so we could tell).

 If we’d known it would be this long, we would have brought a few different things in our suitcases, or purchased them before now.   People would ask, “So what do you miss the most?” And my answer would depend upon whatever the most recent experience was.  When I needed to print something for Primary, I missed my printer.  Kevin missed his pillow each night--it was a special one he'd ordered and the pillows we borrowed just weren't the same.   If I was cooking, I missed my pots & pans.  I missed my own shampoo—the hair care products here are geared to the coarse, straight Asian hair.  My hair is about as opposite to that as it can get!  I missed my L'Oreal hair color as more and more gray was showing up.  I missed our pictures hanging in the walls.  I missed clocks.  I missed the piano, and we all missed the music books.  The girls had several opportunities to play their violas and had no music with them.  However, the two times they’ve played in church, they played a hymn (we got the music off lds.org and Kevin printed it at work), and last week, they played “The Lord is my Shepherd” and got so many comments from the members—asking if they had made a CD, and one young man offered to help them do some recording.  And it was lovely.  They used the women’s arrangement in the hymnbook, with Ellie playing two parts.

We opened the first box and America just jumped out at us!

I love the "handle with care" sign on what used to be a rectangular box.

So much paper, paper, paper.

 When the word came that the shipment would be delivered the next morning, there was elation, followed by dread.  Stuff can be SUCH a burden! There were 227 items (mostly boxes).  And if we had known then what we know now, there would have been about half that.  In fact, one of the international schools is having a charity garage sale in two weeks and we’ve started a couple of collection boxes for the stuff that we really don’t want.  We gave away and threw away SO much before leaving Iowa, and now we wonder why we didn’t get rid of more.  

 The boxes used by the moving company were vastly inferior to previous moves.  It was unusual to find a box that was NOT crushed, torn, or mutilated in some way.  Mostly crushed.  It wasn’t until I was collapsing some of the boxes for disposal that I realized how thin and light they were.  (Not any of the dishes were broken though—those boxes were sturdier ones).  

I was surprised that all the dishes and kitchen linens fit in the beautiful hutch that was provided for us.  Our kitchen has very limited cabinets.  But with the help of the bookcases we first purchased in France we are going to do just fine. 

 Some things we were happy to see? Our bed. H*E*B Chocolate granola!  Good old Aldi baking mix.  The boxes won’t stand up because they were a bit crushed, but the contents taste great!  Such a treat!

Some things that didn’t ship well?  Any of the chocolate items.  Chocolate chips are in solid masses.  Peanut butter cups are unrecognizable, as are the coconut Hershey's kisses.  I had previously shipped chocolate both to France and then to the U.S., and it did fine.  Not so this time!  Four months in a hot container is plain chocolate murder. Guess it will always have to be transported in suitcases. China does not do chocolate.  You can find it at import stores, or there will be small Dove chocolates, or M &M’s or a few other bars at regular stores, but they are very expensive.  $2 for a small bag of peanut M &M’s—I’m talking “snack” size small. 

When Kevin hung the cuckoo clock, with the first striking of the hour, Ellie called from her bedroom,  "Now that is one of the happiest noises I've heard in a long time!"

So I have learned a valuable lesson.  The world will not collapse around me if I don’t have every little thing.  And truly, it’s not my own comfort I worry about, it is having what is needed for the family.  And maybe it is a bit of insecurity—will they be upset with me if there is something I SHOULD have thought of, or SHOULD have packed and didn’t?  So I obsess over lists, trying to anticipate every need and every situation.  And in the end, there is too much stuff.  At least we can be generous—

we have plenty to lend or give away!