My departure for China is now down to only 20 days (you can follow the countdown from that cool little widget I made on my page)!! So here's kind of what I'll be doing over these next 20 days:
-Learning Mandarin Chinese (my accent is almost slightly better than horrible now)
-Taking 3 master's courses to become certified in Teaching English as a Foreign Language- which will continue through August while we spend the month training in Beijing
-Reading more than a dozen books on the history/culture/customs/laws/cuisine/shopping/etc. of China
-Sending out my 2nd newsletter- which you'll receive later this week and you should be super stoked about it because it's pretty stellar, if I may say so myself ;-) (if you haven't given me your mailing address and want to receive my newsletters from China, just message me your contact information)
-Having several more appointments with supporters to share about my work
-Speaking at Fellowships
-Saying goodbye to all of my friends and family: bu hao (no good)
-Finalizing my Will, PoA, and Medical Directive (also bu hao)
-Signing over legal authority for all financial and medical accounts to my parents while I'm gone
-Preparing my 2011 taxes, which is pretty ridiculous, but I can't very easily do that from China
-Buying teaching supplies and USA memorabilia for gifts to Chinese friends
-Packing- which is seriously ridiculous because there's SO MUCH to pack and we can only take 2 suitcases including our winter clothing, and we have to pack a 6-month supply of several items that aren't sold in China (including deodorant- yay for super small spaces with sardine-like capacity in a country where they don't wear deodorant!)
-Putting all the rest of my earthly possessions into storage
-and lots of other things, but I can't find my to-do list at the moment!
There's obviously still so much to do in preparation, but the past 9 months of preparations for moving to China have already been a vital part of my journey that I wouldn't trade for the world. I've learned so much and have grown in ways that I never thought possible, and I'm not even in China yet! I can't begin to imagine all that He has in store for me over the next year, but I do know that it's all part of His plan and He has complete control, so I'm thrilled to continue this journey and see what comes next!
Goodness, woman. reading that made me want to pass out. we have SO MUCH to do.
ReplyDeleteBut it'll be here sooner than we know it, right?
Haha, oh I know! After writing this up last night, I woke up feeling like I had to get every single one of those things done TODAY; I've been working nonstop! But at least we're in this together :-P
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