The Whirlwind

Oh, my goodness, Friends!  March was a whirlwind.  I'm sorry I hardly blogged at all, but it was sheer craziness in our family! :) 

One of my good friends from growing up passed away in the beginning of March, and I was just so heartbroken.  I think my grief was compounded by culture shock and the fact that I couldn't call any of his family or even hear about the funeral plans.  I felt completely cut off and useless.  I got the news during my 15 minute break when we went  to a cafe to get internet for a minute.  I was a mess.  (Please do pray for Mike's family... his wife and two small children, especially.) 

Then... I already wrote about Scarlett Fever.  That WAS crazy, but while the kids were all still sick, our babysitter for Carolina got an internship.  So without any notice (not that she could've helped it), we had no sitter!  It was stressful on top of ALL the kids being sick AND we had a bunch of paperwork fiascos going on.  At this point, that's too much to explain... there are SO many things you have to apply for and bring in and sign and blah, blah, blah... Wes was in the middle of that when we also got the news that the company we had been waiting on for 1 1/2 months couldn't provide internet for us.  Yeah, wonderful!  So, we were juggling all that, trying to keep our heads above water.  I think b/c we were (are) still going through culture shock, it was just hard.

So we are in the midst of all this craziness, and I decide I'm going to sit down for a moment of quiet "mundane" (that I so desperately needed) and write a thank-you note.  Wes had taken the boys out to "explore"... it totally get's out their energy from being cooped up in a small flat... and Carolina and I were home.  It had been so crazy that I had neglected to write some of these thank you's to people who had been so kind to us when we first arrived.  As I'm writing, my door buzzes from down-stairs.  I thought Wes had come back for something.  I only glanced for a second at the camera, and I buzzed them in, but...  it wasn't Wes.

Carolina and I opened the door, expecting "brodders!" and Daddy, but it was a strange man in a red shirt.  He said some things in Spanish and I only caught two words: furniture and things.  It took a moment to register: our crate had arrived!  I was thrilled!... and then I was panicked.  Did he mean NOW... like, right now?  So, I used one of the few words I know and asked "Aqui?" ("here?")  He nodded.  I had to clarify, "Ahora?"  ("now?") I still wasn't convinced that I had understood him correctly, so I asked him to wait a moment.  I picked up Carolina and walked out onto the balcony.  I looked over the edge and sure enough, there's a huge white moving truck parallel parked in front of our building.  (Now how in the WORLD this guy did that with these tiny, narrow streets, I have NO IDEA.)  Yup.  Our "stuff" was HERE,  NOW.

They were supposed to call and let us know when it was to arrive.  We are in a furnished apartment that we needed to "un-furnish" before our furniture arrived.  We crated couches, our ktichen table, bunk-beds, cribs, changing tables, etc.  Plus, it's only a 1200 sq. ft place with SIX people living in it!  What was I going to do?

I tried to call Wes, but he wasn't answering.  So, what could I do?  I wasn't about to tell the guy to go away.  I was afraid I'd never see my stuff again.  So, I told him to go ahead and bring it all up!  (I mean, how amazing! ...  they were bringing it up for us... we didn't even have to unpack that truck! :) No way was I going to complain. )  I pushed couches against walls and moved tables and chairs... we might not be able to move, but we were going to get our stuff!!!!!!!!! :)

Wes called me back a couple minutes later, and he had just heard from someone that our stuff was coming... yeah, thanks for the heads-up! :)  Wes came straight home, and we piled all our stuff into every corner of the apartment.  We literally could hardly walk around.  It was quite a fun experience with 3 energetic boys and a little girl just the right size to get into boxes! :)

One of the journey guys came over while they were unloading our stuff, and he called our Land Lady for us (since we can't speak Spanish yet.)  She was amazing, and made arrangements to come over the next day to open the storage unit for the extra furniture.  (She had to get the key from her sister who lives out of town.)  I stayed up all night unpacking all the boxes for my kitchen.  It had almost been a year since we had packed all the stuff, so I couldn't remember what I had.  This kitchen was fully stocked, so I had to pack up her stuff, so I could fit mine into the cupboards.  The thing was, I couldn't remember what I had and what I didn't have... so I didn't know WHAT to pack up.  It was crazy.  I had to open all my boxes to see what I had, so I would know what of hers to pack up.  And, I had to have it finished by the next day.  It was a long night. :)

Well, little by little, we have worked away at things.  It is slowly coming.  I'm sure those of you who don't really know me very well are getting a pretty good picture of my personality. :)  I don't function well in chaos.  ( I think I've made that statement before! :) )  All that happened right before the Easter break.  Here, they take their break the week before Easter, which we were looking forward to, so we could get things in order!!!  Whew!  Talk about a whirlwind!