<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon arriving back in the USA, I was glad to see my wife,\nbut anxious to get home before traffic became absolutely terrible. It had been 39 days since I had driven a car,\nand despite having more than 16 years of driving experience, it didn\u2019t come\nback to me as quickly as I had thought. \nWe made it home safely and I began to settle in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first order of business back home was to review the\naspects of the job opportunity I had received in Christchurch from Inde. I had been reading the paperwork nearly daily\nto make sure I understood each aspect of the offer itself, and once satisfied,\nsigned and returned the paperwork to my new employer. Once it was signed, I was able to submit\ncomplete the visa application for myself (though not for my family, since they had\nnot yet completed medical exams due to the absurdly high cost in the USA). The visa processing time site had updated\nstatistics stating that it could be between six to twelve weeks for the visa I\nwas applying, a sharp upturn in the turnaround time. Although the job offer and initial\ndiscussions had said perhaps February or March as a start time, given the time\nneeded to relocate and settle, I was a bit worried that the visa application\nitself would be delayed with the holidays and that we may be looking at the April\ntimeframe. Ultimately, those worries\nproved unfounded as my visa application was submitted on December 9th<\/sup>\nand approved December 19th<\/sup>. I\nhad done it! There was a minor snag,\nthough \u2013 I needed to be in country by March 20th<\/sup>, 2019. I now had a date. We opted to get our house on the market,\nplanning to move in with Rebecca\u2019s grandmother if it sold quickly, or if not, at\nleast we\u2019d have a lot of \u2018setup\u2019 work out of the day. Christmas was coming, but it wouldn\u2019t be long\nbefore a tragic turn of events would beset our family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For months we had been researching and working on\nrequirements for immigrating, including steps required for importing our\npets. We had heard first hand from\nothers that it was \u201cexpensive\u201d and that pet exporters were recommended. In talking with others who had done it, we had\nheard it was roughly $3000-$4000 USD equivalent per-animal. Certainly not cheap, but, we love our\ndogs. As we started navigating the steps\nto prepare the dogs for the vet visits and such, we re-examined the\nrequirements and noticed a small detail we had previously overlooked: One test must be administered, then<\/strong> a 3-month waiting period begins,\nwith the potential for another 3 month wait after that if the results are inconclusive.\nAt this point, we looked to engage pet exporters so there would be no more\nsurprises, as we\u2019d be bumping up against my March deadline, so we began\ngathering quotes. When they started\ncoming back, we were taken aback. The\nfirst several quotes were for $17,000-$20,000 and were not all-inclusive. For the sake of completeness, we reached out\nto as many exporters as we could find for importing to New Zealand, and with\neach, the dread increased. $24,000. $27,000. \n$30,000. $33,000, all inclusive. It became clear that we would not be able to\nuse an exporter, and instead started stepping through the requirements\nourselves, but the airlines themselves deal exclusively with exporters\nonly. Through many tears, anger, and\nhugs, we had the incredibly difficult discussion of whether or not to ask the\nbreeder of our dogs if she could find new homes for them. It was a relief when she said she could do\nthat for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A few days went by after that difficult decision was made before\nwe decided to tell the children. It was\nabsolutely gutting to see their reactions when the reality set in that the dogs\nthey had grown to love so much these past 4 \u00bd years would not be coming with\nus. Inside me, meanwhile, the pain and\nanger started building. How could we\nhave been so wrong about the cost? How\ndid we miss the timing of the rabies test? \nHow is it others are able to bring their pets. I reached out to others in the \u201cMoving to New\nZealand\u201d Facebook group and on reddit to talk to others who had recently used\npet exporters from round the globe \u2013 and they confirmed, again, that they were\npaying between $3,000-$4,000 USD equivalent to transport their pets. A Canadian from Vancouver, B.C. received a\nquote in December, in fact, for $4,000 CAD (Roughly $3,000), plus the cost of\nquarantine, for a single animal. All at\nonce, the anger inside spilled over reading it \u2013 how was it we lived in a place\nso consumed with greed? Was it\ngreed? Is there another\nexplanation? I couldn\u2019t get it out of my\nhead, and I could feel a tightness in my chest from the stress of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All the while the pet exporting situation was unfolding, I\ngot quotes for international moving companies. \nThe services and prices varied wildly, from $4,500 USD – $10,000 USD for\n\u201call-inclusive, door to door service\u201d (the definition of all-inclusive is\napparently flexible, as the final price for our selected $4,800 move turned out\nto be over $9,000). We had to pick a\ndate to get on the books for moving, and being a bit upset, I impulsively told them\nto pick everything up January 15th<\/sup>. \nRebecca agreed, afterwards, that would work and we would \u201ccamp\u201d for a\nwhile, living with Rebecca\u2019s grandmother. \nNow that we had a date, though, it became clear with the house showings\nthat it would be easier not to have the dogs with us. January 14th<\/sup> would be the last day\nthat we would have our dogs before they went to the breeder to find a new home. With a date where the dogs would be handled, our\nthings being gone, and a lot of pain in and anger in my heart, I discussed\nsimply leaving \u201csoon\u201d. After discussion,\nwe decided on flying out January 21st<\/sup> (a date that I would later\nregret, as I didn\u2019t bother checking the holiday schedule, not realizing that\nwas Martin Luther King Jr. day, and I ended up resigning before a paid holiday. Whoops!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The children stayed with great-grandmother the night of January 13th<\/sup> so that we could prepare\/pack, a task that Rebecca had been working incredibly hard on since our decision to pack everything up. They spent the afternoon with the dogs down at great-grandmother\u2019s house since we had house showings, but came home that evening with Rebecca. Monday the 14th<\/sup> I was working from home, so around lunch time I packed them up and took them for a drive to Orting. The dread welled up inside of me as my dogs were anxious \u2013 they recognized the drive, and could sense my stress. I arrived and talked with our breeder at length about the move, expressing my disappointment and regret at how this had played out, giving the dogs some last loves. More than once I broke down, and the dogs knew how upset I was, trying to comfort me. At one point they needed to be put outside, so we could finish talking and I could sign them over to her. Broken, on my knees, crying, I said goodbye to my fluffy friends one last time and watched them trot outside. I signed the papers, said my final goodbye, and opened the door to leave. As I walked toward my car, I could hear Tui, our male dog, make a distressed yelp to call me back\u2026I couldn\u2019t even bear to turn around to look at him. I got in the van, turned it on and drove away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t more than 3 miles before it had set in so bad that\nI had to pull over. I couldn\u2019t see. My chest was tight with anger, my eyes were\nfilled with tears. I pulled to the side of the road and wailed out loud to\nmyself. I had, in a way, spent more time\nwith the dogs than all 3 of my children (including my 11 year old) when you\naccount for total hours together, due to school \/ work. I had the opportunity to work from home for\nalmost 18 months, which meant, outside of sleep, I was with those dogs nearly\nevery hour of the day. Tui, the male\ndog, had come to us a year after the others, having had been returned by his\nprevious owners (after a rather rough go, having been stuck in a crate in a\ngarage, alone, for extremely long durations). \nI thought of his piercing eyes and what would become of him. Would he know what betrayal is? Would he feel the same about me, being\nreturned to be re-homed a second time? I\nsat there for what felt like an hour, before I finally resolved to make it home\nand continue working for the customer for my final week with Right!\nSystems. I had a responsibility to them\nas well, and I knew I had to uphold it to the best of my ability. Still, two weeks on as of this writing, I still\nremember that feeling of falling to my knees to weep and at the anguish of\nsaying goodbye to them, those furry, fluffy balls of happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moving day came and went, rather uneventful. The shipping container was 30 minutes late, I\nwas getting all sorts of calls from different companies to confirm, and I was\ngetting agitated at paying for \u2018all inclusive\u2019 service which seemed to amount\nto nothing more than subcontractors who were being poorly orchestrated (\u201cWhite\nlabel\u201d service is a thing, after all). The\nmovers showed up without the proper materials, but regardless, today was the\nday, and we were getting it on the boat. \nUltimately, a loading which we paid for from 10-12 was drawn out from\n10:30 \u2013 4:30 (which, incidentally, they charged<\/em><\/strong> me for\u2026) despite having all\nof our stuff packed and ready besides the furniture which we paid for them to wrap\nand load. Still, its pretty hard to argue\nwith someone when they want money and they literally hold your entire life\u2019s\npossessions in their control. Pay it and\ngo, I guess. We capped off that\nstressful day by selling our Kia minivan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our final week in the USA we said goodbyes, still working to\nclean and empty our house, but getting together with as many friends as\npossible to spend time with people who, despite our best efforts, we may\nactually be seeing for the last time in person. \nWork wrapped up uneventfully, with a pleasant final day with co-workers\nwhom I had always enjoyed working with. \nThey wished me well on my new adventure, and like that, we drove away. The following day we managed to sell my car, largely\nfinish cleaning out our house, and headed down to grandma\u2019s. Sunday, our church family blessed us and said\ngoodbyes, and Rebecca and the kids spent the evening with grandma and friends\nwhile I had dinner with friends from my 10-year career with the Puyallup School\nDistrict. It was a wonderful way to cap\noff my week, and I feel so very blessed and grateful to have spent the time\nwith them before moving on to the next adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday, January 21st<\/sup> had arrived.\u00a0 There was nothing left to do but to say goodbye at the cemetery to family who had gone before, then off to the airport with the help of a beloved family friend.\u00a0 We checked our bags around 1PM, cruised through security (despite the TSA being unpaid due to the government shutdown), and waited for our plane.\u00a0 Two flights later we arrived in Sydney where we went to see the Opera House and harbor, but with the heat and humidity (as well as lack of sleep) the kids were begging to go back to the airport where there was air conditioning.\u00a0 We obliged, as it was clear we wouldn\u2019t make it to the zoo without massive stress.\u00a0 We sat in the terminal, ultimately meeting a nice woman from Christchurch returning home after 20 years for her father\u2019s funeral, then boarded our final plane to Christchurch.\u00a0 On arrival, we cleared immigration, collected our bags, cleared bio security, found a shuttle that could fit all of our luggage and took the short ride to the AirBNB that would be our home for the next week.\u00a0 We unloaded, unlocked the door unceremoniously, told the kids to brush their teeth and get in bed, before laying down ourselves.\u00a0 We had done it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had been There and\nBack Again<\/strong>. Our new life was beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Upon arriving back in the USA, I was glad to see my wife, but anxious to get home before traffic became absolutely terrible. It had been 39 days since I had driven a car, and despite having more than 16 years of driving experience, it didn\u2019t come back to me as quickly as I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20181205_053722-1024x576.jpg\")
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