T-Minus 9 Days

These last few weeks have been crazy busy as we’re preparing for the ACTUAL MOVE. For those of you who don’t know, we finally got our visas back… and they were APPROVED!! Since then we’ve nailed down a solid departure date and it’s coming up so quickly! We will be boarding our flight on Tuesday, March 9th at 1:05 PM and from that point forward, our lives will be turned upside down (and not just because we’re on the bottom of the planet either).

Here are a few of the things we’ve had to do (and are still doing) over the last two weeks to prepare:

1. BUY TICKETS:

Pretty obvious. We’re flying from Denver, to Los Angeles, L.A. to Honolulu, Honolulu to Auckland, and Auckland to Christchurch. We figured after all of the chaos of moving we could use a little time to recoup before diving head-long into the deep-end of a new culture, so we’re staying a few days in Hawaii on our way. Everyone likes to ask about travel times… if we were to do this journey straight through we’d be in the air for about 15 hours. However, with layovers and time changes, it takes almost 2 full days (we leave on the 15th of March and arrive on the 17th – 42 hours later).

2. PLAN CRATE SHIPMENT:

You’d think this would be easy… I mean, it’s just like packing a few boxes and running them down to the UPS store, right? Not even close. Before this process I’d never heard of ISPM-15 Certified Heat Treated Wood, Customs Clearing Brokers, Bills of Lading, LCL, or any of the other foreign terms commonly thrown around in the international freight business. I felt like a complete idiot trying to talk to the expediting company, but we eventually got through it.
At this point we’ve had a special crate built out of bug/fungus/mold/bacteria-free wood, it’s about the size of 2 wide coffins stacked on top of each other (sorry for the awkward visual). This Thursday, it will be filled with our remaining earthly possessions (aside from the stuff we hid in my parent’s basement – thanks Mom and Dad!) loaded in a truck and sent on it’s way. The shipment should take about a month to arrive in NZ whereupon we have to hire a Customs Broker to negotiate our crate through customs, hopefully avoiding a potential month+ fumigation quarantine and any other legal obstacles. It might sound silly, but we wouldn’t mind your prayers for the safe transport of our stuff… thanks!

3. SELL OUR CAR:

We got rid of one car a few months back (Kate’s parents bought it – thanks guys!!) since then we’ve been sharing the Xterra. Not a problem at all, but now that we have to sell that one too… it gets a little more difficult. If we don’t have a car, we can’t do everything else we need to do (see #5), but if we don’t sell it before we go we’re in a bit of a jam… you see the difficulty. We’ve spent the last 2 weeks cleaning, shampooing, fixing, taking photos, posting on CraigsList, fielding calls, showing it to unresponsive buyers… fielding more calls, showing it to more buyers… and freaking out because we only have a week left. Needless to say, we still have it. Praying that the right buyer will come along… ASAP! POSTED HERE If you know anyone in CO in need of an SUV pass it on.

4. SAY BYE TO FRIENDS/FAMILY/GUY DOWN THE STREET:

This is an ongoing process and I’m sure most of our friends are thinking “you’re STILL HERE?!”. It’s hard to believe we’re actually leaving everything we call “normal life” and we’re starting from scratch. To those of you whom we didn’t get to see “one last time”… we love you, we’ll miss you… and come visit us!! (please!)

5. A MILLION OTHER TINY THINGS:

Can’t forget to close this bank account and wire this other money to the new bank in NZ… and book that hotel… and figure out how to get the crate from this house to that warehouse at the right time… and terminate the auto insurance… and pay that last phone bill… and get a power converter… and see this and that person… and do our taxes… and get one last burrito… and…

6. OH, AND WORK:

On top of all of this, Noah is still working doing both freelance projects as well as getting started on his part-time illustration job. Kate jut put her last day of work a few days ago as well…

Beyond all of this, I think the most frustrating thing for us is knowing that though our goal in moving is to “do ministry”, right now we’re too busy MOVING to even think about what it is we’ll actually be doing when we arrive. This, of course, is normal and will only last a season, but it feels like a deviation and a major distraction from our main purpose. It actually reminds us quite a lot of the season of preparing for a wedding. It should be a special time in which the bride-and-groom-to-be are focusing on their personal character and mentally preparing for their union, but it is instead spent going mad trying to plan a huge, expensive party for all of their friends and family. In fact, it’s not unlike real life in which we all spend so much time making provisions for our lives that we forget to actually LIVE THEM to the fullest.

I’d love to have some beautiful conclusion to share… a memorable lesson that you can apply to your own life… but we just don’t yet. We’re in the middle of the madness and we’re continually looking to the Father for each breath of fresh air. We know it won’t last much longer (at least not this part of it) and that gives us much comfort… and, who knows, maybe that’s somehow comforting to you as well.