OH WHAT A MESS WE ARE IN!!!!

Did I say in an earlier post moving out of the country was not for sissies?????  Well, let me repeat myself for emphasis!!!!!  MOVING OUT OF THE COUNTRY IS NOT FOR SISSIES!!!!!  Or, for that matter, for anyone who just doesn't feel the "dream" calling them.  Seriously, this is a lot of work and, in our family, much of that is on David.  He is taking care of all the financial end-banking, accounts, lease etc.  Without Adrian Leeds, this would be a nightmare!!!  Really.  She is always there to help us understand and pull us back from the ledge!! Karina, too, has been great in following up with us and trying to make it easier.

This week David has been out of town some and I concentrating on putting my clothes together....clothes/shoes to take, clothes to give away and clothes to trash (not many of them).  As I've said before, I really am a purger.  Ask people who know me.....I am always going through my closet bagging up clothes (not so much shoes!!!).

But doing this has been the hardest part of this move for me.  Those questions: what will I need there? what if I take it and don't really need it there? what if I don't take the right kinds of things and have to buy new (harder for me now because as well as being more expensive, I'm not familiar with the stores and my options), and the big one---what if I don't take enough and have to wear the same boring thing all the time!!!!!  I know, I know, this sounds vain and frivolous.  I own that.  But moving like this is something I've never done and I'm new at it.

When I was feeling the craziest, I called Nikki and she talked me off the ledge!  After our conversation, I went back to my suitcases (2) and pulled out more filling up more "give away" bags.  This morning I went through them again and did the same thing.  I know our space is going to limited and I don't want to pay to take a bunch of clothes I'll have no good place for.

This is just the beginning!!!!!!  I've gone through these two bags 3 times.....and we've discovered my problem isn't clothes, it's products!!!!  It takes a lot of skincare, makeup and nail equipment to maintain this body!!!!!!!

When it was all said and done, we decided it would be better to have all our bags under-weight (you know, the American Airlines 50-lb. rule!!) and just one BIG bag and pay the extra on it.  And I can work with that....no loss of products for me!

A NEAR-PERFECT PARIS HOME!!!

Earlier in the week I was was feeling homeless and without country.  But then, voila, we have a new Paris home!!!  The pieces are finally all in place for us to begin our adventure!

Last weekend at Nikki's we were sent an apartment by Karina that we decided was "the one".  She looked at it on Monday and emailed it was a nice apartment with lots of light, nice owner (yea!) and in an area (the 9th Arr) that she prefers because many of her ten years in Paris it's where she's lived.  We thought we were sold.  However......we decided to go back to an earlier apartment we had scratched from our list because of the price.  We sent it to Karina and on Wednesday she went to see it.

When I got up Thursday morning, David had received an email from Karina saying "this is your apartment!"  It's in our first-choice location (the 7th Arr), has 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, small balcony off the master, lots of storage and is 90 square meters (the biggest we'd looked at and had thought we wouldn't find on our budget).  The owner is very nice and Karina submitted our dossier without even asking us.  So we now had two applications in for two different apartments.  We never even heard back on that first apartment and the owner of the second was back to us in a matter of hours and a rental agreement had been emailed, signed by us and emailed back.  Technology is great when it works!!!!

So we now have a new home...ready on March 1 for our March 4 arrival.  It needs a little "Sherry zhushing (Courtney's word)" to make it cozy and like us but I'm already looking at the pics and thinking of ways to rearrange and change things and what I would like to see in various spots.  Then I guess we'll just have to hit some flea markets when we get there!!!!!

For me, probably the best part of this apartment is each time you go into or out of the building this is what you see....

And, yes, it is as close as it looks!!  David says about 1000 feet (whatever that looks like!!) from our front door.  I told you I'm a geek about La Tour Eiffel!!!!!

Once we move, I'll post (maybe even video) the rest of the apartment for you to see.  Maybe after the zhushing..........

FIFTEEN DAYS BUT WHO'S COUNTING??????

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted news.  Someone said to me recently she hadn't read anything in my blog lately.  I replied, "I know this is hard to believe coming from me, but I actually haven't had anything to say!!".  Which is REALLY rare for me!!!!!!

The truth is the days have been passing quietly, mostly, with nothing really to share about our upcoming move.  There are been open houses nearly every weekend (😖) and many showings (👏), but no happy news.  It's like everyone (or most everyone) loves the house but no one wants to buy it!!!  Until they did!!!

On Monday, my birthday, we got a contract on the house!  After some negotiating,  we reached an agreement and the ball started rolling.   So now we are in the process of sorting--things to store in our little storage room we've rented, things to leave for the estate sale, and things to take to Paris with us (which is getting smaller every day!!).  The other day David and I took a carload of boxes to store.

Amazing how little is "close to my heart"

We've designated this space for the things we, hypothetically, plan to take to Paris.  However, that box on the right hasn't been gone through so I'm thinking much of it will go to storage.

The table and chairs will go into the sale and the plates on the right may go to storage.  Right now we're just doing the first round of organizing.  Later we'll probably have to narrow things down.  Luckily, I'm a good purger (is that a word???!!!) and don't hold on to things too tight.

Moving to a new country isn't for sissies, that's for sure!!!!  So now we're homeless and without country (did I just sound like Meg Ryan in French Kiss???!!!).  For now.......

  

FRUSTRATION AND FAITH

Tuesday was a day of frustrations.  Moving to another country just isn't easy. First you have the big issues-selling your house, storing/selling your possessions, and getting your visas.  Then you still have to take care of insurance, banking and, in our case, Social Security.  It's all exhausting!!!!

The house....selling the house.  Open houses are just tiresome...but necessary.  We want to do all we can to sell the house which means finding something to do for two hours on a Saturday, a Sunday or perhaps both.  How many errands can we run, how many movies can we see?????  Then we finally get someone who seems very interested but nothing happens----FRUSTRATION!!!!!!!!

It's so easy to think "what is God doing?" or "why hasn't He sold the house?"  But then I remember this quote:

               "You can focus on what God is doing or who God is-
                If you focus on what God is doing,
                What are you going to do when you don't understand
                What He's doing???"

And I let it go and keep praying for patience.....again!

THE STUFF

In addition to the larger tasks that have to be taken care of before our move to Paris (selling the house, getting the visas and finding a Paris apartment),  there are quite a few smaller tasks that need to addressed.  Being a person who hates (really!) to wait till the last minute to take care of things, this has been a real concern to me.  What and how are we going to get rid of the stuff we have accumulated---and you realize much was eliminated three years ago when we moved to our townhouse.  So we don't have nearly the amount of furniture, etc. that many of you probably have.  And I'm always cleaning out my closet so that isn't going to be a big project.

But still....there's a lot and while I am all on-board for donating it, it would really be nice to make a little money that could be used to make our new apartment more us without feeling we were wasting money.  David sold my car to a business associate, and that transaction will take place mid-February (I refuse to be without a car till then!!!!).  Check!  David put me in charge of the selling of the furnishings so I did what anyone would do...I googled it.  I found two companies that do estate sales in your home and contacted both.  One was not very responsive and when they finally did respond, I didn't find them particularly friendly.  The second, however, was a hit from the first response.  Another's Treasure is a mom-daughter owned company that does estate sales all over all the time.  We had several conversations which were all helpful and supportive followed by a visit a couple of weeks ago.

At this visit, we walked through the entire house pointing out things I would be keeping (which was very minimal) so she could take pictures of the sale items. You may be asking how I (and David mostly leaves it up to me) decide what to keep and what to sell.  My motto has always been I keep "what's close to my heart".  To that I have added (sometimes with a few limitations) "if I can't see it or use it, why have it?".  I won't go into the things that are staying (mostly in storage) but right now there are 20 boxes and there will be some more--but it won't be another 20.  There are only a few furniture pieces, Aunt Bessie's little half table, David's dad's bookcase we got when we got married, and a little wooden child's chair from the church we both grew up in.  I am, also, keeping my blue and white English dishes (from our visits to London when Nikki and Scott were there) and a few of the signs I love and hold close to my heart.

English teapots and one Portuguese stay and may go with me!

Some signs remind me of sweet friends and good times past

So on February 24 we'll be moving out with our minimal possessions and they will come in, pull out the remaining things, stage them and have a weekend sale the weekend we fly to Paris.  Following the sale, they will deposit in our local account a HUGE sum (LOL!!!!) that was made from our furniture, closets, drawers and cabinets.  And we're done!  You think we're crazy, don't you???!!  It's just stuff...I don't mean to sound cavalier about it.  I have loved buying and decorating for our home these many years.  It has created a warm, loving, and inviting place to raise our children.  But, now, we don't need all the stuff to create that environment.  What I hold dear can't be moved or stored because it's the people I love, the memories I carry with me and the one who walks beside me in it all that matter.  And that is a dream of it's own!

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!

So,  you all know we went to Houston on December 8 to apply for our visas which we must have if we want to stay in France more than 90 days.  Since then,  we've been waiting to receive them in the prepaid , self-addressed envelope (with our return address) left with the consulate as they requested.  All we read and hear is how slow the French are so we haven't worried about it.

Finally, this week we began to consider following up on the visas since we are now six weeks from departure!  Our contact at the consulate gave us the good news our visas had been approved (yay!!!) and mailed....DECEMBER 11!!!!!!!!  What?????!!!!!  And it is now January 15 (the day David contacted her).  Where are our visas?????????

With a copy of said envelope showing tracking numbers, David got online and found the number to be "undeliverable"!!!!  Needless, there was "weeping and gnashing of teeth" all over the place!!!!  And a few French words too!!!  After several days and countless phone calls and emails, we decided to take matters into our own hands.  My daddy always said "if you want something done right, do it yourself".  That may not always be true but it's usually worked for me!!

Friday we went to our local post office, went to the little door to the side of the associates selling stamps etc., and told our problem to Sylvia.  Because we'd been told it was probably in Dead Mail (wherever that is!!!!), we weren't even sure we could find it.  Oh, I forgot to mention this envelope was "for signature" too so couldn't just be dropped in our box.

When Sylvia went to see what she could find, David and I stood sharing the typical "how could this happen", "someone didn't do his job very well", and even "this is all going to be okay-God's got it".  In our relationship, I have typically been the more "realistic" one and David the more "it'll happen" one.  However, I believe in a God of miracles (so does David!!) and I said to David "what I'd love to see happen is Sylvia come out holding our envelope with our visas-wouldn't that be a great surprise?"
A few minutes later, the little door opened, Sylvia walked out with a big smile on her face and handed us the envelope containing our visas!!!!!!!  You have never seen two happier people...we were doing the happy dance (sorry, no pic of that!!!!)!!!!  The other "I can't believe I have to wait in line this long" people probably thought we were nuts.  But we felt as though we'd won the lottery!  I told David later I imagine it even made Sylvia's day..how often at the Post Office do you get to give someone such good news?

Who would have thought this could bring such joy??!!

Now we can go to Paris!  Such a small thing but it brought us such great joy!  Maybe that's always true...we just forget to be aware and look and notice the small things.  And miracles do still happen...

Waiting

And we wait...waiting is rarely easy.  When you're a child, you wait for Christmas to come; when you're a student, you wait for summer vacation and when you're a young mom, you wait for moments of quiet and me-time.

Musee d'Orsay

David and I have been in waiting mode since our visa interview six weeks ago.  The holidays helped, but now it's a cold January day and it seems it's been ages since we've taken a step forward toward our move to Paris.

Sell the house, receive our visa, choose a Paris apartment.  All of these events are out of our control- there's nothing we can do...but wait.

        "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
          they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
          they shall run, and not be weary;
          and they shall walk, and not faint."
                                       Isaiah 40:31

Yesterday a young woman looking at a the townhouse next door with her realtor was leaving as David returned from a walk and David invited them in to see our home.  Also, we did some follow-up on our visa and it has been issued but the post office didn't deliver it (who knows why!!!!) so we're having to hunt it down.  More on that later!!!!

Has anything changed for us?  No, but God gave us moments of encouragement that help us to stand firm, to keep looking up, to keep believing.  He's still working!!!!!