On shipping our personal belongings to Lebanon

Between all the paperwork, administration, errands and orientation sessions, we’ve been working on receiving our shipment. Every day Courtney calls the poor man in charge, and every day since the end of last week he has been telling us “You shipment will probably be delivered today.” Now, I have experience with difficult administration, and Middle Eastern administration in particular. I’ve done waiting, yelling, making friends, threatening, sobbing, bribes; the whole shabiel. If somebody tells me, “It is a complicated process,” I can understand it is going to take time (or money), and if someone uses the term, “Insha Alllah” in *that* tone, I get it; it may be a while. Here however, we’ve continuously heard nothing but “No problem, it will be today.”

Not only is it the hope thing that has got me either. It’s the fact that things we really need – things we count on in our daily life – are in that shipment, and I just want my freaking forks! I want the baby high chair, because I’m tired of Abraham trying to have his meal sitting in a normal chair and turning our dining room into a food sprayed disaster zone. I want our baby bed because my neck is killing me from having to share a small double bed with Courtney AND all-over-sprawling Abraham. I want my comforter, dammit, because well, I like wearing a blanket while I sleep. I want the colander so that we can have spaghetti. I want my other kitchen utensils, the kids’ school books, and their toys. And you know what? It’s not even the hope OR the fact that we need these things; it’s the combination. If I knew we weren’t getting our colander any time soon, I might consider buying one in the meantime. But buying spaghetti in the store, expecting to have my colander in the morning, and then not getting it; this is just really annoying. [Please note that the colander plays a representative part here.]

Well; it’s weekend now, and we cannot expect anything at least until Monday. Sigh. I get two days off, not having to hope and get disappointed. On Monday, Courtney starts work.