It's August 1st. We move on Saturday the 8th. Moving truck, cleaning the old place, handing over the keys. I like the old place. The new one is pretty nice, too. It's smaller, with a definite spare room that no one would want to live in but could visit for a few days in. I'm looking forward to the snow that they get and keep most of the winter. I've never lived with that before. I'm not looking forward to finding a new church and job and routine, figuring out where to get the car fixed, where to get haircuts, all that. Can I go to the Sheritan in Tianjin instead? I like that idea.

Mind you, I don't want to live in the smog and traffic and smells and crowds. I don't want to ride trains and taxis. I don't want to struggle to communicate every day.

But I would like to take Chinese classes. I would like to experience the enthusiasm of the Chinese college students. I would like to see Kristen and Renee and Marilyn and Audrey and Geri and Phoebe and a dozen other people any time I want to. I would like to go out for pastries with the ladies. I would like to work in the library. I would like to stop at the Korean restaurant to pick up dinner, or call Sisters or the Pizza Box. I would like my weekly massage and monthly pedicure, cheap. I would like to take my mending pile to a nice lady who won't charge me much for fixing zippers and tears.
I don't want utility bill collectors tromping through my kitchen. I don't want heater-fixing men laying on my bed. I don't want the extreme heat of summer, nor the biting cold of winter. I don't want to miss stars and rainbows and donuts and sweet corn.

But I would like to go to International Day at the school. I would like to go to Beijing at Christmas and Bei Dai He in the fall. I would like to walk through the night market and smell the popcorn and sweet potatoes. I would like to stop and get yang rou chuan (lamb kebabs cooked outside) and then a Magnum ice cream bar from the Best Store.

Can't I just have it all??

Heaven is going to be so good.

Moving

I used to think I would have made a good military wife. For a while I even encouraged Garry to go full time in the military, so we could travel around every few years. Now I'm glad he didn't.

We're moving again. It's been almost a year since we moved to our sweet little duplex, and I'm on the internet searching for a new place. Prices are good in Klamath Falls, where we are going, but we got such a great home here, I'm not sure how the next one can measure up.

I kind of wish we had moved from Tianjin to Klamath Falls, and THEN to Roseburg. Roseburg is so green and beautiful, the weather so mild, and our home so nice, that it would have made a good final destination. Klamath Falls is more brown and bare. But they do get snow, and I like snow. And God will point us to just the right home, hopefully next Friday when we go looking for it.

It's going to be OK. And it may or may not be the final destination. We'll see.