Howdie! Howdie! Howdie! We're here! We're here! We're here! Hahaha, I can hardly contain my excitement...this must be the longest holiday in my life :) Don and I have arrived, complete with 3 overweight baggages, one of which was oversized as well, and Tibby, in more or less, stable state. The airport custom officer was kind to us to let us through without charging excess baggage, I think she saw the cat and thought we were nice people, that's why. Tibby's air-ticket was USD100. Her export permit was S$50 and her vet certificate costed us S$31.50 from the vet's and $21.50 from AVA. Altogether, we paid about S$250 for her passageway to USA.

And thank God we brought her along. At every customs check in USA, people were friendly when they saw our cat. At Chicago airport, where we expected to be checked thoroughly just like our past experience in New York JFK airport last year, it was surprisingly smooth and swift. Simply because we had a cat, and had to declare her. The usual green "Nothing to Declare" line was a long queue, but our red "Things to Declare" line was bare. We got there, and were simply intereviewed for some of our cat's life and Singapore life in general. Our baggages were not even checked, whilst we saw everybody else's being thoroughly examined by the customs officers on the green line. Wow! It was a good thing we brought her. I don't think it'll be right to have come USA for 2 years and not bring her along. Tibby's family after all, much as most people might not understand, but well, we don't live our lives for others, do we?

Don and my parents might have freaked out a little and questioned the sanity of it all, but we don't really care. We don't see them that often, and we definitely won't be seeing them for the next 2 years :) Haha, this is not to say that we don't respect and love them for who they are, but we make our own decisions and are ready to stand by the consequences ourselves, whatever they maybe, whether good or bad. For which in this case, it turned out to our advantage, and really, we're so glad to have her with us. She's such a dear little thing. Quiet, timid, submissive and obedient. Her curiosity and inquisitive ways often land us in softened chuckles as we watch her in amusement as she sniff and explored her new surroundings. I can't wait to see how she is in winter, whether she'll be cold. It's great!

So far, our trip has been a really blessed one, and I think I must say I learnt that we had so many friends, more than we thought we had in many people. So many people cared for us when they learnt that we were leaving, and Don and I are really in awe of it all. We hadn't realised we meant something to others, I mean, most of the time, we just all live our own lives. But when we held a chalet and so many people turned up, and the generosity of everyone with their ang pows was quite unexpected. It really warmed our hearts. It's not the amount that was given, but the fact that people were early at the chalet (I'm ashamed to say we were late), and that people came to chat with us and caught up with us despite everyone's busy schedule (being mother's day and all that), and the speedy responses to our invitations...all these spoke much of the friendships that we had made for the last 4 to 5 years. We can't thank everyone enough for their well wishes and generosity, but I know we'll remember each and everyone in our hearts and in our prayers for always. People's lives we know who have made a difference in our lives, and whom we'll always treasure. A big Thank You to everyone. You know who you are!