We have yet to nail down a move date. Randy's job is very busy right now and his schedule seems to change daily but we know the move will occur either mid February or the beginning of March. This week I have started collecting quotes from different moving companies so we can decide how much we want to ship to Dubai and how much we'll need to store here in the states. I think I heard an audible gasp from the United Van Lines rep when I opened our storage shed today and asked him if it would be a problem to store our industrial cement mixer.
We are shipping Bella to UAE and I spoke with a company today called Air Animal. They have been shipping pets all around the world for 33 years and the rep I spoke with today was very helpful and understood my apprehension over shipping Bella. I was so nervous about the process and found myself literally tongue tied with nerves when talking to her about the trip. She explained that Bella will be picked up from our house and will fly Lufthansa from Houston to Frankfort Germany, have a mandatory rest stop and then fly from Frankfort to Dubai. She said Lufthansa is VERY particular about shipping pets and have been known many times to remove animals from the flight because the pilot found something not quite right with the animal compartment and would not allow an animal to travel unless the compartment was perfect. She also said the Frankfort airport animal holding area is THE state of the art animal holding facility and the Germans are so pet friendly that animals actually have rights while they are there on layovers. She said Bella will be fed and watered and walked every hour while on her layover but her layover cannot exceed four hours. She also said the air is refreshed every 15 minutes in the animal holding area and the company rep can sleep well at night knowing the animals are being cared for by the people in Frankfurt.
After she explained all of this I felt so much better. She said, "I literally just heard you exhale. Are you feeling better about it?" It was funny because I didn't notice I had exhaled but after she said it I realized that's exactly what I did. She told me, "I understand how you feel about Bella. I don't have babies, I have a Basset Hound." The grand total for shipping Bella will be about $3,500 and since I discovered Artem's "Happy Birthday Jesus" slice of cake on our master bedroom floor tonight (plucked from our kitchen table while we were out tonight) someone better be minding her doggie P's and Q's between now and the time I write that check!
The other big news for our move is our lease on the flat in Abu Dhabi. In UAE, you pay your rent with one check at the beginning of your lease. We pay approximately $60,000 US dollars for our lease and if you need to leave early, you lose the remainder of your money. Since renewing our lease in July, we would stand to lose a major chunk of change if we left in February for Dubai. Randy and I decided it couldn't hurt to ask if we could be let out early and Randy had his speech ready to go. He went to the leasing agent and explained that we adopted a second child and really needed to move from our high rise apartment to a house with a yard in Dubai and would appreciate it if we could get out of lease early and then braced himself for the fight. But instead of a struggle, the leasing agent simply said, "Okay". Wow! Nothing ever goes that easily in UAE so we consider ourselves very lucky they are letting us out early. We have to give them 60 days notice which Randy is handling right now and before we turn in the keys we need to show them that we've cleared the utilities. That's not too bad.
Randy will be home tomorrow for the holidays and when he returns to UAE in January, he'll start the house hunt in Dubai. We already know the neighborhood we want to move to, it's called Arabian Ranches, not that it means anything to you, but when I talk about it in the future you'll know what I'm talking about. Clear as mud? Arabian Ranches is a gated master planned community that is built around a golf course, is surrounded by miles of hiking and biking trails, has a main community center, and has it's own school, grocery store and fast food restaurants. Arabian Ranches is made up of individual smaller neighborhoods that each contain their own playgrounds, pool, and community center. The neighborhoods all have sidewalks and many of the streets are cul-de-sacs which would be great for the boys to play out front and ride their bikes. The villas (fancy word for house) in the sections we are looking at range from 3,800 sq feet to 4,500 sq feet and each have their own private backyard which will be good for the boys and Bella; that is if she stops swiping "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake from the table while we are out. But the greatest thing about Arabian Ranches is our dear friends from our military days are now living there and we can't wait to explore Dubai with them and their two boys!
Andrik's certificate of citizenship finally arrived so we can proceed with getting his US passport and this coming Tuesday we'll head south to Austin for Andrik's recognition of foreign adoption court hearing which will officially declare him a Texan and will allow us to get a Texas birth certificate for him. Those two things make travelling to UAE (and other destinations) much easier versus doing it on his Russian passport. It will be nice to finally be in UAE and be settled and slow down for a change!
