First Leg of the BIG (but not as big as before) move!

Wow soooo crazy, that last week was. after the very short notice that the moving company was coming the very next day, we spent our wednesday packing our whole life up!

Here's our life shown in boxes and plastic bins in our last living room.



This moving company packed up everything. They were very thorough and efficient, so far so good. Our things will be packed into a shipping crate and shipped across the waters surrounding Indonesia to our new home. A little different than renting a U-Haul, huh? They had very creative ways of moving big items. This is our mattress boxed up. One guy was lifting with his head...I've always heard,"Lift with your legs!" but this changes everything! Here's the "moving truck" that will move our things to the crate.





So we spent the next few days just resting, visiting friends, and packing our bags to head to Kuala Lumpur (KL). Our main reason for going to KL was to see my dad. He was there this past month for work. We were hoping to catch him for a quick visit, but it's okay because he came to Indonesia! Our other reason was to change our visas from students to worker/housewife. So our cat, Laki Galak Balboa (Mean Boy Balboa) thought he should get in on the action too! He chased some socks right into the suitcase.



We made it to KL, but NOT without some stories to share.

*Story #1*
We had two huge bags and two hiking bags with all our "can't live without things". We had paid for the max amount of luggage. Well... we were overweight, not us but our bags were. They suggest to "shuffle some things around". This could not be done, no room anywhere. The family of four standing behind us had 22kgs. left. They volunteered to check one of our hiking bags (thankfull it was mine, that thing was sooo heavy!) This allowed us to get through baggage claim and arrive in KL with ALL of our things! We know that we were being looked out for.





*Story #2*
Boarding the plane in Bandung is very different. It has a very 1960's feeling to it. I was reminded of the photo of JFK and Jackie O when the arrived at Dallas Love Field in '63. There's no covering, and you walk straight to the plane. Quite interesting.





BUT through all of that, it was a nice flight. KL is a lovely city. It looks amazing at night, and I'm so thankful to be here.



Today our first stop was the Indonesian Embassy for visa paperwork. Normally this causes headaches in almost every country, but we are really fortunate to have a great team that work on organizing paperwork for visas. Our visas were soooooo smoooooooth. Filled out a form, turned in our papers, made some copies, stood in some lines... done at 4 PM this afternoon (hopefully!) Fast and easy... someone must have pushed that "easy button"! OR someone must be praying! Thanks for looking out for us!

-A&J