Moving Day!

Jamie and I are ready to go! It is exactly 5 hours before we take off. My parents and niece came down last night and met Jamie and I, her parents, and brother and his wife for dinner at Hearth and Harvest (our last meal and delicious). We've packed, crammed, and stayed up late but all is hopefully good to go. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers for our journey. We'll certainly need them. I won't know the status of the Internet for a few days there, but I'll post when I can. Rest assured, in the upcoming weeks, I'll have a ton of pictures for you to see. Until then...

Last Day! Jamie and I will be busy busy today as we make final preparations. I won't even begin to list what we have to do. For anyone interested, shipping boxes to China is expensive, so save your pennies (lots of them!). I fear that we have too much to jam into our checked and carry on luggage, but we'll see. Somehow, these things always work out in the end.

As I think this morning about what we have left to do, it becomes a bit overwhelming. We are having a final last meal tonight with family, and we'll try and get some sleep, although I'm not sure that will happen. We'll leave at 10:00 am. As of posting this, it'll be 25 hours! Amazing. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Crunch Time. Jamie and I are shipping some items today. Expensive, but I guess cheaper than buying a new winter and dress clothes wardrobe. We also need to sign the land contract and ship it. Nice to be done with that. We'll be spending the afternoon with Jamie's grandparents. As of typing this, we have just over 48 hours before we fly. Just a few more precious hours to spend with the best dog in the history of the planet. (Sigh): I'm gonna miss him.

By the way, if you haven't seen the new Batman movie, we highly recommend it. It is quite long, so be prepared. I hope to play one final round of golf tomorrow morning. We'll see if I have time.

Here is the family going away party group picture held at Cartersville CC on July 26th. I won't attempt to type everyone's names, but we'll have this as a reminder of love and encouragement as we move to China. Great photo!

Going Away Party

Today we were given 2 going away parties. The first one was held at the country club and was a family only affair. Many thanks to Kathy for putting together all of this. The service at the cc was wonderful and we were able to say our goodbyes.

The evening going away party included some family but also some friends that graciously attended. A huge thanks again to Gary and Kathy, Charles and Jewel, and Mark and Kathy for setting up, taking down, cooking, catering, and just being wonderful. All of the goodbyes are beginning to set in now, but we are trying to hold strong.

Funny story. Jamie and I purchased 2 webcams so our parents could use them with Skype. We walked out of Staples and called Jamie's mom who was so excited because she had just purchased one about an hour before. We made a U-turn in the parking lot and returned it withing about 2 minutes. Today we find out my dad has already purchased one too. Good news, both of their cameras are better than the ones be bought them.

Jamie and I will be spending our last few days spending time with close family. My goal is to play a couple of rounds of golf. We have some last minute packing to do and we need to go ahead and ship some of our boxes.

We found out that we will in fact have a van picking us up at the airport in Hong Kong. This is a huge relief as we would have had to carry all of our luggage onto the ferry. Of course, we'd manage, but this will be so much easier.

I did not take any pictures of the parties, but I know that some did. I will get those pictures and upload them onto an album. You'll find it at the bottom soon. Thanks for those reading this.

Jamie and I would like to thank Charles and Jewel Brown (Eric's parents) for wishing us luck on our journey by posting this on the sign in Calhoun, TN (Eric's hometown). We are back from south Georgia after visiting with Jamie's dad in Bainbridge. Note to self and everyone else: Please use name brand sunscreen that says "WATERPROOF" and not "WATER RESISTANT." The water resistant doesn't work. No word yet on whether China has either but we are willing to bet they do. We are about 98% packed up and are spending the rest of the time visiting with family. Time is ticking but we are ready to fly. This time one week from now, we will have been in China for more than a day. Amazing.

Faceville, GA

Jamie and I are in Faceville, GA (south GA about 10 miles from the Florida line) to visit with her father. We'll be going to Mexico City Beach tomorrow and then back up to Cartersville until we leave. We are about 95% packed and have just a few loose ends to wrap up. Truck still not sold, so if anyone knows anyone looking for a truck, give me a call or email, or skywrite it.