Somewhat Bittersweet

Well, today was extremely productive, yet somewhat bittersweet for me, at least. Sad because Emily left today. Matt is taking her to the airport right now--well, actually to the hotel next to the airport--so she can catch her plane at 7:30 tomorrow morning. She's been such an amazing help, and I'm so thankful she was here. In a lot of ways, it made the move seem like it was a vacation instead of a move, since I still had someone to speak English with and help with the kids during the day, and Matt and I were able to go and do some things by ourselves. Besides that, she's just a fun person to be around. I'm glad Charlie will get her back, since I'm sure he misses her, but we'll feel her absence. Thanks, Emily!

On the productive end, we got the papers signed for our house today! Matt had to go to Aix for the morning to get some bank stuff done first, then he came back and got me. Emily stayed with the kids while we went and got housing insurance (a requirement in France), then did the whole signing the lease and doing the damage inventory. That took over an hour, which isn't a crazy amount of time for what we accomplished, but it felt like a long time.

After that, Matt and I ran out and got a quick bite to eat, then met Mme. Gauthier (our relocation agent) at the phone/internet store (called Orange). It took an hour, but we signed up for phone, internet, and TV. Our phone line should be up now, but it will take up to 15 days for internet service to begin. So, once we move into our new place, our only connection to internet will be Matt's at work. So, we may be out of commission for a little while until that happens.

On another note, Mme. (Madame) Gauthier has been a gift from God for us! She is our relocation agent, as I mentioned above, and has been our help in communicating with everyone when getting housing, phone, and electricity. She knows all the ins and outs of moving to France, and we felt that she has been really on our side. It's actually a little sad that our work with her is pretty much done, unless there's a problem that we need her help on. But, we're thankful to have had her to ease us through this transition.

That's pretty much it. A very full day, both happy and sad. Tomorrow Matt has meetings in the afternoon, but hopefully we'll get a little furniture shopping done in the morning. Perhaps we can move into our place on Thursday or Friday... We'll have to wait and see. Pierre has offered to let us stay through Monday of next week if we need to, so that's definitely a blessing that we won't have to live in a hotel. God has been good.