Happy New Year!

The blog has been quiet for a while…hopefully there is still someone reading it!

Lydia and I returned to Kansas City for the Christmas holiday on December 9; Dave followed on the 19th. Though it was a very hectic few weeks, we had a fantastic time with family and friends. After our visits back to the US, we are always so grateful that we have such wonderful people in our lives - and that so many people are willing to fit us in their busy schedules. The gift of good company surpasses any new “thing” that we could have wished for!

However, we did acquire something rather significant and newsworthy while we were back – a new home! While our move back to Kansas City is still planned for 2012, we decided that we should do our part to help the US economy now (okay, we weren’t actually that altruistic – we thought it was a good opportunity to take advantage of historically low interest rates and sagging home prices!).

If you’re wondering about how we did this...no, we didn’t pull off a house hunt and purchase in a few short weeks. We handled the whole process, except for closing, from overseas. And, yes, this means that we signed a contract for a house without seeing it in person. Dave walked through it an hour before we closed (I saw it a whole week earlier!). I always think of us as not being risk-takers…I may need to revise that assessment!

In any case, our realtor (and his staff) was fantastic - he took a hundred pictures, met one of our good friends to go through it, and really left no stone un-turned for us. Everyone involved made every effort to make sure we had no surprises - and they succeeded. Still, I think it was the weirdest transaction our realtor handled last year - or possibly ever.

A picture of the house is in the "New Home" blog post below (had issues with Shutterfly and this is the only way I could get it on – there is only 1 picture).

There’s work to be done inside – new paint, carpet, and major kitchen remodel (the former owner’s style can best be described as “confused”) – but we love it. It’s got a great layout, a forest in the backyard, and is in a fantastic neighborhood. It seems like it is the right place for us, even if we won’t live there for a while. But, it won't be empty - our luck continued and we found a great house sitter to occupy the place. And, again, we have the good fortune of having friends and family who have offered to help us manage things from afar.

So, that’s our exciting news update from THAT side of the world. From now on, I’ll get back to what’s happening on THIS side of the world. If there are things you’d like to see or know about Hong Kong, please leave a comment or send me an email – we’d love to hear from you!