Catch up:

I have only started this 'into' the adventure so let me catch you up a bit.  I'm not going to go into the entire moving saga - to me that would be an entirely different animal, and frankly, I would not like to relive it.  Let's just say that I organized group travel and did large groups one over 1000 people, this surpassed that group on so many levels.  All I can say is that if you are going to move house, neigh, if you are going to decide what in your house what is worth shipping, and what price you want to sell what you can, and what you are willing to give away and to who, do it quickly, like ripping off the band aid and know that there will be that ONE thing that  you will think you did the wrong thing with no matter what.  Then, when you are done - move on!

So this is more about what it is like to go from having a settled life and all it contains to literally starting all over again.

So we arrived on the 10th of February, we flew via London, and again, I'm not going to get into the travel with small children adventure, but my suggestion is to get a good sleeping aid for them, it makes them more comfortable for the long night flight, and allows them to sleep easier and longer so they can keep as close as possible to their schedule. 

10th of February: We arrived in DC.  Now here I am going to digress a bit and go into the immigration process. When we phoned for information on how to get Pappa's immigration visa we were told that the process could take up to 6 months.  I thankfully had been collecting documents from Home Affairs such as unabridged birth certificates (for kids) unabridged marriage certificates etc.  I would suggest that for any document that you can get unabridged you get it before you need it as these can take up to 6 months themselves!  The first step is me as the US citizen to petition for him to be considered an immediate relative.  We dealt with the consulate in Johannesburg and we dealt with a man named Vinesh, seriously a painless process.  We were told exactly what we needed, why, how to supply those details and when, all with a professional and kindness that was so refreshing and really made us feel like we were doing the right thing.  This took about 2 weeks and once approved we then started the second process which is the immigration visa process. Also a well handled process, this took about 6 weeks in total and we had the visa.  So if you are thinking of this process, get all the documentation that you will require before you start, then hang on to your hats, it goes quick!

Sorry - 10 February - again.....

We arrived, tired and a bit smelly.  My mom and her man live in the area and helped us quite a bit with the visa, we stopped for a visit with them.  It was a good idea, we had a break from moving and the stress of leaving our home and starting the process of getting our lives in order.  Besides the fact that it was nice to see them both and spend time with them.  But this blog isn't about all the emotional good to be home family stuff.

We stayed with them for 5 days and then flew to our new home city Dallas.

Here my dad and step-mom live and have a house for us to rent, so I don't know the whole stress of finding a place to live etc...

So now we are here and what on Earth do we do first....car? school? furniture?  what is the thing you need to do first?  Well we quickly decided that being independent was top, closely followed by a school for the kids!

We started shopping for a car and looking for a school simultaneously....

While searching for a car we quickly discovered that me being away for 13 years basically eliminates my credit rating...now this could be a good thing, but it is also a bad thing.  No one will loan me money to buy a car nor will they lease me a car because basically for the past 13 years I haven't existed...this makes lending agencies a bit nervous, go figure!  So then we had to ask Daddy to co-sign on the car...at 39, I had to get a co-signer.  See this is the 'back to school' part...we had a fantastic credit is SA, we were independent, we could have co-signed for other people....here we are 0.  Sobering.

We started looking and realized that we couldn't even be reached or find one another if we got seperated on the massive car lots here.  SIDE TRACK....telephones.  Hey here we should be able to do this on our own!  Right??  NO!  In order to get a phone contract we would have had to have put down $500 per phone...um...Daddy????  

Ok so phones sorted we resumed the car search...found some great deals on leasing a new car (we are safety obsessed so new was the safest option) Kia - good deal...VW...good deal...we weren't in love with the cars...Chevy Traverse...loved the car...no deals...then Pappa THE MAN found a Dodge Durango...OH YES THANK YOU!  On Friday we drove away in our Dodge Durango...so sweet!  Of course since I started this blog after the fact, you have been saved from them process of shopping, dealers, me losing it on one, and the fact that we were at the Dodge dealership from 0900 - 1330 and still had to go back for the car.  AND I still have to take it back this week to have the EPP done - protection coating on the outside but more importantly the inside to protect the car seats from 'small' mishaps..

So now we focus back on the schools...