I just refuse to let that baa humbug spirit in...even though I live in Romania where nothing goes as planned! I won't let it get the best of me...I won't!! I have to keep telling that to myself otherwise I will get the baa humbug spirit. My husband, the dear man that he is, gave me some money and told me to buy myself some clothes for Christmas (I've been complaining that my closet is full of $1 gypsy market finds and that just isn't good enough :). So, I find that LandsEnd has good quality clothes and they send it directly to me. I didn't want my mom or Baron's mom paying postage on a gift for me. So, I place my order and low and behold it was here via UPS in like 7 days...that was just amazing. The problem was it was sitting in the UPS office in Timisoara for 2 days. So, I called to find out what was up. Well, she tells me I have to pay a tariff! What? A tariff, I have never in 7 years here paid a tariff on things I bought or boxes I received with new stuff in it. I asked if it was just a UPS thing she said no, its because you bought something on line from America. I explained to her that didn't make sense because I have bought stuff on line before from America but never used UPS before and never paid a tariff before. We will actually stop by the office today to pick up the box on our way out of town and argue a little more about it but I think we will end up paying the tariff...$50! Yes, it kind of put a damper on my Christmas present, but Baron told me not to worry about it, it was a gift from him and he would pay the tariff. He is so calm about things like that. I want to shout out, "It's not fair!!" Well, life isn't fair so get over it! Go with the flow. Do what you can to fight injustice but know that you can't save the world. It doesn't do any good to get all uptight about something you can't do anything about so don't waste your time (I'm talking to myself now, trying to convince myself I shouldn't get up tight).
So, as you are waiting in lines with grumpy people this season, do what you can to smile and spread some Christmas cheer and share the love and joy that Jesus gives us. Just think about the grumpy person this way, you have no idea what news they got this morning or what trials they are going through that made them that way.
About Me
- Joyce Howerton
- We have lived in Romania for 16 years now. We have 6 kids. The top photo of our family is the day we met the twins, just before their 4th birthday. We were granted custody of them on their 5th birthday.
4 comments:
I think it is a UPS thing...they charge a "brokerage fee" to carry things across borders. We have learned this with churches in Canada placing orders for K4T supplies...if the order is shipped USPS - we have no issues, but if it goes UPS they must pay "brokerage fees" of about $50 per package.
For this reason we do not recommend UPS for international orders, but UPS is our recommended shipper for US orders.
The same thing happened with us in S. Korea. No fees, unless it was Fed-X or UPS. And then you had to pay a big customs fee, and in Korea usually your package sat there for months before you knew about it, so at least you got your gift in a reasonable amount of time. Good for you not hum-bugging it. I hope the rest of your holiday is smoother.
Evidently some how I'm logged in as my mother. Linda is actually Laurel.
Why didn't you tell me to read this sooner? I'm such a Scrooge right now I can hardly stand myself! :)
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