Recap on Our Arrival to U-town Part 2

After moving into our second hotel, Josh started taking steps to begin classes.  Surprisingly, we arrived during one of their holidays.  So we had a few extra days to get settled before we were each on our own.  This turned out to be a huge blessing as we traded places in putting Jaden down for a nap and apartment searching.

I’m going to pause here to mention that coming without a tm was incredibly difficult.  We arrived in the country with no one to say “welcome!”  “We are glad you are here!”  No one to tell us, “You aren’t crazy to bring your son here.”  There wasn’t anyone to show us a good place to stay or help us figure out how to get around.  Granted, we have been here before, but usually our time in U was very short and we were going off of very little sleep and jetlag.  And we had never traveled with a baby before.  So there were many aspects in which we mourned our lack of support.

Thankfully, the Lord provided two friends that were truly indispensable.  They were from Karamay but were going to be in U-town for a few days.  We had three days to learn all that we could from them AND find an apartment.  So for three intense days, we searched the internet for apartments, called a ton of different landlords and walked/taxi/bussed all over the northern part of the city.  But the Lord was incredibly gracious and in the end we found one that is close to the school and just the right size.

Welcome Home!

We also realized later that we were blessed to have found an apartment that wasn’t being controlled by a realtor.  This allowed us to avoid a tremendous amount of fees.  So we quickly moved our stuff in the following day and declared ourselves officially moved in!  I’ll post a video of a tour of our apartment on the website so you can see it better.  It has a more open layout than most Chinese apartments so its perfect for hosting.  It has a good size kitchen (very large for Chinese standards), a dining room, living room and three bedrooms.  The bathroom is nice with a western toilet (for those of you planning on visiting us, this might be some welcomed information).

After moving in, we had to register which required 3 days of running around to different offices getting stamps and signatures that usually required 4 hours of waiting.  It was very frustrating and difficult on Jaden but we all had to be present and it had to be done.  So we are very thankful that process is over.

The next bump in the road was that we found black mold in some cupboards.  So I hired two ladies to do a deep clean of the entire apartment and afterwards I soaked everything in tea tree oil.  I then tackled the kitchen and did a thorough cleaning with vinegar (it took 2 days!).  And finally, I got on my hands and knees and hand mopped the entire apartment floor.  Once all of that was completed, I declared our home fit for living as well as halal (so our cousins can eat with us).  Jaden could now crawl and roll on the floor without his feet, knees and hands turning black from the dirt.

The last part of our moving in was for us to furnish the apartment.  We had to start completely over from a kitchen table to couches.  Slowly but surely we found what we needed (including a good size toaster oven) and began making our place more comfortable.  Two months later we have already hosted a party with food and games…not too bad, right?