Ralphie's In China?

We are becoming accustomed to the phrase "nothing is as it seems." Everything changes on almost daily basis in our lives in regards to this move. The most recent change is that we have decided not to take our dog Ralphie.
Andre broached this subject one night while we were laying in bed talking. He casually dropped the bomb, "Do you think we are making the right decision taking Ralph???" I immediately responded "YES! OF COURSE!!!" He dropped it then, and fell right to sleep. I, on the other hand, lay awake for hours thinking about it. By the way, he always does this to me. You know, bringing up things of monumental proportions and then falls quickly to sleep. I ALWAYS lay awake thinking about his "topic of the night" and eventually fall into a troubled sleep. Not nice, huh?? Anyway, I thought about Ralphie a lot that night and the next night and began to see Andre's point (obviously). I began to picture him left in China for 3 weeks, while we come home for Christmas, being let out twice a day and spending the rest of the time in his cage crying. This pretty much broke my heart. Not to mention that we were ALREADY worried about him coping without the companionship of another dog. He came into a house with two dogs and he has never lived his life without another dog. I started thinking..."Are we doing what is best for Ralphie or what is best for Kelly and Andre?" We both thought it would be nice to have a little piece of home but I rarely thought about the reprecussions it would have on our little guy.
Needless to say, after much debate we have decided to leave him in the states. He will be moving in with Dave & Chrissy (Andre's Mom & Dad). I know he will be happy there, but that certainly doesn't make it any easier.

Map

Andre worked really hard to create this map. It is a map of Dongguan with a couple of special interest areas. It has his office, the apartment complexes we are looking at, and a couple of other things. After we get there and decide on an apartment, we will delete the other ones so you know for sure where we are! Anyway, check out the following link when you have some time.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=102471637132619899639.000454e56c2fcdf91defb

What?? No way!!!

WE HAVE A DATE!!! We can finally answered the most frequently asked question!! I am thrilled to finally announce that we are leaving on October 3, 2008.
As a result of this, Andre is not leaving tomorrow. He will wait it out here with me in the States and then we can go together. :)
We hope to see everyone at least one more time before we leave, but if we don't we will be home for Christmas. We debated whether or not to come home, but Klipsch offered us a trip home for the holidays and it was pretty much use it or lose it. We have booked this flight as well, since it is cheaper to buy round-trip. So we will be home for Christmas on December 13, 2008. Just in time to go to the Colts vs. Lions game in the new stadium with my Mom & Dad! :) We will fly back to China shortly after the New Year.
Yay!! So exciting!!