Meerschaum Colouring And Maintenance

I have a meerschaum pipe on order and I have a couple things that I would like to know about the pipe since this is my first meer.
Is there anythiing that I need to do to/with the meer before I have my first bowl or is it pretty much "ready to go" when I open the package? What about cleaning the pipe after I am done my first bowl? For the record, I have a rather large supply of :worship: Black House :worship: waiting for me to fire up the pipe, so the sooner I figure this out, the sooner I can enjoy a bowl, lol.
Also, my wife really likes the original colour of the pipe and was not overly impresssed when I told her it would turn to a somewhat brownish colour after smoking it a while. Is there anything that will keep the pipe more to the original colour? I heard something about removing the beeswax, but not sure if or how to go about this.
Your thoughts and ideas on the above would be appreciated.

Thanks for the information guys, it is very informative.
I think I will just let the meerschaum colour naturally. The pipe is for me, so I have the final say......I think, lol. Scraping the cake out of the bowl is the only part that makes me nervous, I don't want to scratch it or crack it or something to damage it.