153 Days.....

153 Days from the day the movers emptied our house in Texas until the day we finally received our sea shipment. Never mind that 7 weeks of that time our belongings sat at customs awaiting inspection (nothing was “wrong” with the items, just the paperwork…we think); it’s just all in all a LONG time to go without some things. Really, that makes just over 5 months (including a Texas December, an Ohio December, a France January, a Zhuhai (texas-like) February, and a Shanghai (think “Kentucky like) March, April, and May) where the three of us lived out of 9 suitcases (clothing wise)… That’s a lot of different weather conditions for which we needed clothing!!!!

Before getting to the “fun” part of the unpacking, let’s back up and review the course of events for a moment…. The movers wouldn’t send our sea shipment (6 weeks by boat) until residency had been established in China… Annoying as it causes delays, but understandable… We arrive here, establish residency, and they send the sea shipment… 6 weeks later it arrives in Shanghai… We weren’t “allowed” to apply for a customs permit until the items had arrived (I STILL can’t understand that one: we KNOW it’s coming, we KNOW where it will be, what boat it is on, and what’s in the shipment…why can’t we get the permit?). Worse yet, we had to obtain the permit from Zhuhai customs even though the shipment was to be cleared by Shanghai customs. So the shipment arrives in Shanghai, we applied in Zhuhai, we didn’t have all the necessary paperwork correct soapplying itself took 3 business days… Then that application had to be reviewed, and approved (5 business days), and the permit sent to Shanghai where the movers here would present the permit to Shanghai customs (2 business days), who then gave us an inspection date (5 business days later)… Things were looking up until the day of the inspection when customsrefused to inspect our belongings due to a paperwork issue (still not clear what that issue was).. Wash, rinse, repeat… Back to Zhuhai we go, span 2 public holidays, delays during A,B, and C of the re-permit process because 2 government agencies wouldn’t talk to one another (instead, they EACH preferred relaying partially complete information through our movers/customs liaison…2 SEPARATE parties I might add…. All the while we only got cliff-notes versions of what was going on anyhow)… Finally got the permit reissued, sent BACK (again) to Shanghai, and a new inspection date was issued… It cleared, and the next day we were to receive our stuff… BUT, on the way to pick up our items the delivery crew was in a traffic accident which delayed delivery an additional 24 hours.. Fortunately, my predictions of Armageddon or the Second Coming didn’t come to fruition (thus interrupting delivery again) and the shipment FINALLY arrived… I lose you yet?

So they arrived – at a little after 10 am (to be fair, they were at our complex at 9:30 – but it takes “a while” for them to get to our house from the front gate.. not sure why, it’s only ¼ of a mile away!). Then the unloading of the boxes began… 143 boxes/items (not entirely true, there were a few boxes that were “multiple numbers” – but still ~130 “true” boxes) were offloaded in less than 90 minutes. The crew leader was surprised (not sure why) that I wanted my own checklist to mark off boxes as they came in. He had intended on checking them all himself… Boxes would come to the door – we’d check them off the list, and to the rooms they went… Master bedroom, basement, spare bedroom, hallway, basement, dining room, basement… and so it went…

Between Savannah and Mason, we had enough curiosity ready to pounce on each opened box, so we opted to “control” what boxes were opened/emptied by the crews. We let them stay until noon, cutting open most boxes but leaving their contents within. The boxes we let them empty were almost all in the basement (where we could control child and pet access…)… Mainly we were concerned of a million items scattered about, with no control of the small ones chewing, breaking, or hurting themselves with the various things. The crew seemed quite happy that they didn’t have to empty everything. We opened some of the toy boxes for Vannah – BOY WAS SHE EXCITED… playhouse, and blocks, and puzzles, and dolls, and instruments, and balls, and lights, and sounds, and you name it… she was beside herself with joy!

Once we ate lunch and Savannah was taking a nap (well, attempting to nap – she was too excited with the “new” toys and other things, and eventually screamed enough that we gave up on the nap)… We let mason out of his cage (had to keep him contained while the crew was there), and HE was excited to get HIS toys (didn’t we just go through this?)… balls, and sheep, and squeakers, and whatever… Of course, although he did great with the 7 guests in the house (mainly by not seeing them or barking), he NOW wanted to play… Not a good time, we’ve got boxes to empty! Us saying that didn’t really help as balls kept going under couches, and drool-covered animals kept ending up on our feet…. Who can blame him, he’s a dog!

 

So we sorted through all the diapers (God Bless “made in the USA” pampers… they don’t leak!), and the wipes, and the remaining baby gear (we’re going to need those bottles and tiny-baby things soon enough!)… Yell started laundry (I think she’ll finish sometime next month) as all the clothes had a bit of a smell from being packed for 5 months. I started unpacking the stereo system – where I found my first uh-oh… Who puts a stereo receiver at thebottom of a box – under 30 lbs of other stuff? OH, the guy who wants to dent the crap out of the receiver, that’s who! I haven’t plugged it in to check it (haven’t found the remote yet anyhow); but it looks really bad for sure! The projector looked intact, though the bubble wrap I had put around the lens never even made it into the box with it (is it possible the movers would REMOVE the bubble wrap that was protecting the lens, BEFORE wrapping it? Seems odd). So far discovered damages include the above, several wedding-picture frames, wall decorations, and a giant dent in our stainless steel garbage can… I’m sure we’ll find more as more gets unpacked…

 

So Vannah wouldn’t cave and sleep – so down she came, and we got to work unpacking kitchen stuff… Dishes, pots, utensils, crock pots, mixer, and…food. You’d have thought Danielle had just won the lottery as she opened the various food items. Focusing on candy bars and ranch dressing, the pregnancy hormones dominated the afternoon! We made substantial progress but the day flew by and we weren’t nearly completed. We ordered in dinner, and got back to the unpacking soon there-after.

More to follow once we finish unpacking…