Progress!

Just returned from a walk while my house was being shown for the 12th time. It seems like showings have picked up, but no one has made an offer yet. Tomorrow I plan to pack up the kitchen and if someone wants to see the house they’ll just have to see the packing process too. I still feel quite positive about all this in spite of having to drop the price. I DO believe it is going to sell before I leave. 

Someone has put a deposit down on my car, so I only have it for another week. I’m a little sad about that. I didn’t realize how attached I had gotten to it. However, it is one more thing checked off my list of things to get done. Check!

Then there’s the visa process. Boy, oh boy, what a pain. No one wants to do the test for malaria and filaria (worms in the blood). My doctor wrote a note saying that I don’t have a travel history nor symptoms and we don’t live in a country that would warrant the check, but I would hate to be denied entry because I didn’t have the test. So, my doctor has prevailed on a lab tech to run a cursory test and write up a lab report on it. Then I have to take all my lab tests (5), letter from my doctor, notarized diploma, background check, and visa to the NC State Dept. in Raleigh to have it “authenticated” at $10/document. Once I get that back (it takes a day), I have to send it all via Fed Ex to the US Dept. of State with a return Fed Ex envelope and $25/document. Once that returns I have to Fed Ex it to the Kuwait Embassy and for $200 they will verify permission to enter their country on my visa and return it to me in the self-provided Fed Ex envelope. It isn’t cheap to go live in Kuwait!

Perhaps next weekend I’ll move my This End Up furniture up to Asheville and bring back a sofa and chair to tide me over until I’m out of the house. Once my son gets back from China I will determine the next big steps.