First Installment of the big catch-up

On February 5th, around 12 am MST, Scott was first offered a job in Kaohsiung, Taiwan teaching English at a High School. At around 2 am, we accepted the job and that began the craziest month of our lives. They needed him to start on Tuesday, February 10th, (the beginning of their winter semester) which meant that he needed to board a plane on Saturday, February 7th. Less than 72 hours after receiving his job, Scott was safely on the plane and I was near tears driving home from the airport with three little kids, wondering how in the world I would be able to pack up our necessities, sell or otherwise dispose of all the rest of our things, and move across the world by myself. Lucky for me that I have the most amazing mother-in-law who agreed to brave the journey with me on the plane and who had also convinced her mother to make her first journey to Asia with us, too! The date was set and I had less than 3 weeks to accomplish all that needed done. At times it looked bleak, but because I have amazing friends and family who supplied me with one of the most wonderful miracles I have witnessed, I found myself on a plane with my three little ones and Scott's mom and grandma on our goal date.

Here is the "you owe me big time Scott" picture". This is all that's left of our belongings minus what we took to Taiwan, Scott's quilt chest that he made, and about a Suburban full of books and some kitchen appliances. Not bad for the short time we had.
I would give more details of the three weeks, but honestly they are a blur to even me. All I can say is that Craiglist is an inspired website, the best way to lose 8 pounds in only a few weeks is to be stressed and busy beyond all reason, Skype is also an inspired modern blessing, visas are the biggest hassle in the world, and that I owe my neighbors Nate and Amy big time (hopefully all the free stuff they inherited eases the pain) as well as Ann and her family, Scott's parents, and Bruce & Trina and their family. I am SO grateful for the gospel and prayer and for so many people who listened to the spirit and lent me a helping hand.

Here are the girls on their first overseas flight. We flew around 10 pm from SLC to San Francisco, and they were so excited and there was a lot of room to spread out so that flight went OK. Then it was about 1 or 2 am Utah time when we left San Francisco and so they slept a good part of the 13 hours and played ok the rest of the time. Then we had a quick flight from Taipei to Kaohsiung which went by quickly, too. We didn't have much time in our layovers either, so other than lugging around a lot of stuff we brought in order to keep the kids happy, and the long hike to the International wing of the San Fran airport, the traveling process went pretty smoothly. Oh, I guess except for Euan, who really didn't like the overseas flight and cried a lot of the time.
I will be adding more later...