Learning the balancing act

As I'm writing today's post, I'm waiting for an email from the travel agency with a possible itinerary for our China flights. After two days of dithering around, trying to get in touch with various people at various offices, I suddenly realized today that we're about to head into the long holiday weekend, and I can't waste any more time with this. Flights are devastatingly expensive right now, what with the Olympics and the skyrocketing gas prices, and they're only going to get more expensive. It's time to get this thing done. So I made a flurry of rather stern calls this morning, and am now waiting for information so that I can send it from one agency to another, wait for approval, and back again.
The pictures below our of our brunch yesterday morning at a local breakfast joint. We rode our bikes over through a perfectly lovely summer morning. But, naturally, no sooner had we slid into our chairs but my cell phone rang and it was the agency, telling us we were going to have to make a large round of urgent calls to the FBI and various immigration offices, chasing down our fingerprints, which had yet to arrive in China.

After the initial flurry of panic, writing down case numbers and office numbers on napkins, we were actually able to relax (at least somewhat) and enjoy a leisurely breakfast with mum. It's a whole new balancing act for us, learning to portion out the stress and enjoy life in the in-between moments. For someone like me, who is lucky enough to work from home in my very own, usually pretty stress-free environment, this is a skill I have not yet mastered.

I will be a more competent, more efficient, and (dare I hope?) perhaps even slightly more organized person when this process is over with, skills that will serve me well as I segue into motherhood!

I'm looking forward to meeting the new me!