The most challenging event, in addition to being the most thrilling, was the delivery of our shipment! Yes, it came, with about a one hour notice, on Tuesday, September 9th. It was nothing short of organized chaos! Steven quickly convinced the furniture warehouse to pick up all the rented furniture (beds, dressers, sofas, ect.) before the shipment delivered - the warehouse truck came within twenty minutes. Shortly after that, the local moving company came with all our blessed wooden crates. They delivered two-thirds of the household goods and then stopped for the day (even though it was only 1pm). Remember that it's Ramadan? All of the delivery guys were fasting - which means no food OR drink, even water. I can't even begin to imagine how they most have felt carry all our stuff in the heat, without being able to drink. Although we were disappointed about stopping when clearly there was enough time in the day to finish, we completely understood. Then we noticed that our mattress was not delivered yet. Oh, the joys!
The rest of the shipment was delivered the next morning and then the real work began! We mostly unpacked and organized now, though every thing is not in it's final resting place. We can even get the car in the garage. We still need to purchase some bookshelves - sure do miss those built-in bookcases in our Michigan house!
I'm happy to say that nothing was confiscated in our shipment - not even the Christmas tree! We only found 2-3 boxes that were even opened. The box of music CDs was one of them and I haven't unpacked it yet, so it's possible some of that was taken - but nothing else that we are aware of. Hurrah!
Unfortunately I do have one sad thing to report: our globe was broken in the move. There were a few dings, chips and other minor breakages, but this one hurt. We bought it in Beijing in 1999 - it moved to Seattle, Maryland, Michigan and now here. It's really a shame - they just packed it badly. It's insured of course, and we will try to replace it, but we did have a bit of an emotional attachment to it, particularly Steve.
The boys were absolutely ecstatic to see their beds, books, toys, and all their crap (mom's eloquent term for the rest of their "treasures" - bottle cap collections, old bus ticket stubs, curled ribbon from a birthday present, colored children's' menus from every restaurant we've been to in the last 5 years, ETC...yes, I shipped it all BUT only because I didn't have time to rifle through it covertly before we packed out in Michigan. Trust me, it WON'T all be put away and it WON'T be missed!) They went to school thinking it was just another day, and came home at lunch to find the mountains of boxes and paper. Here is a fairly accurate portrayal of their reaction:
Just two days after the shipment was delivered, the Wilkes arrived in the Kingdom. This is the family we met in Houston last November at the initial orientation for the job. It turned out they have a son Michael's age, and two younger daughters - and they lived an hour from us in Michigan. Neil Wilke is a doctor working now for the hospital here - he was here for a month in the spring and Steve spent a lot of time with him - "bach-ing" it. They had a very rough summer and their transition getting here was horrible. In addition, they've never lived overseas before. Steve met them at the airport Friday night, and we've been very busy helping them get settled in. So far, they are exhausted, overwhelmed, and at times frustrated with the system -- but very much loving the community, school and overall experience. Sound familiar?I was determined to get this post up this morning - I'm still sitting here in my pajama with the breakfast dishes in the sink - so I better stop talking (typing?). Stayed tuned...there'll be more to come soon on Jacob's birthday, cub scouts pictures, Royal Saudi Air Force jets, skinny cats, our pet Recko, and many more ideas bouncing around my brain. I'm never at a loss for words, just the time to type them!
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