So here's the scoop.
On Tuesday afternoon last week Scot and I locked up the town house in Denver and drove away. The Lord was good and the bad weather had swept through Kansas the day before and while we were left with overcast skies and wind gusts that made it hard for Scot to drive the 26 foot Budget truck
and tow his car - we were kept safe. We drove about 5 hours and stopped in Hays, Kansas for the night, got a good dinner and a good nights rest and hit the road again Wednesday morning. We arrived in Kirksville that evening after a long, but thankfully uneventful day of driving, to catch up and visit our dear friend Maryellen.
Thursday and Friday were crazy busy with seeing friends, stopping in to where I used to work and showing Drew off (Evan was with my mom back in the Springs in order to avoid the 4 days in a car and the busy days in Kirksville), eating at our favorite little spots, walking around "The Square" (the only thing to do in Kirksville...), and visiting with more friends. Oh yeah, and doing those
required things for graduation.
Saturday was actual graduation. I made it almost the whole way through the ceremony without crying. When they had the spouses stand up and publicly thanked them for their support - it hit me how long a road we've been traveling and also how hard the road ahead is going to be. The ceremony was short and sweet and I swear that if my chest could really inflate like a cartoon's, it would have been a mile out in front of me! Scot looked so good with his black and green robe on - his dad was able to make it to 'hood' him - and it's so fun to now call him
doctor. Once the caps were in the air and a few pictures were taken, we hit the road yet again. And here is where the miracles started happening.
Saturday night we planned on stopping in Champaign, Il. Little did we know that Campaign is home to one of the largest Illinois state school (almost 40,000!) and it was graduation weekend. We had to drive almost an hour outside of town to get a hotel room. And when we did - it was the last exit before 40 miles of nothing and it was
the last room in town. God is so incredibly good to us.
Sunday morning we started out driving early in order to get into Cleveland at a decent hour and in hopes of getting part of the truck unloaded at the house. Well, we got into Cleveland when we wanted to - around 4:30 - but there was no unloading going to be going on.
Since Scot had the truck and couldn't go faster than 65, and I had Drew and stopped to nurse, I would drive and stop and Scot would typically catch up and then I would pull ahead again. Well, for whatever reason, I was about an hour ahead of Scot when we pulled into town so I just headed to the house with the intent of unloading my car. I got to the house and realized something was amiss. Construction equipment littered the small dandelion infested yard and the shutters weren't on the windows like I had hoped they would be. (The owner had called last week to say that just a couple little things still needed to be done, but it wouldn't be a big deal and we were fine with that.) As I walked through the house with the owner my heart sank. The lovely green shag carpet was still partially attached to the stairs. There were nails sticking out of the stairs where the shag carpet used to be. The beautiful wood floors of my dreams were in reality very dusty and unfinished. The 2 rooms at the end of what I thought was going to be a hallway were really just over sized closets with not enough room in the larger one for a queen sized bed let alone furniture with it. The upstairs floors had whole chunks of floorboards missing and sheet rock yet to be installed.
I felt stupid and naive and totally lost. I told the owner that it was not in shape for us to move into - that we had a 26 foot truck on the way that needed to be unloaded the next day - that my mother and 22 month old son would be here on Wednesday - that he had made it sound that he had a lot less to do than what he really had. I left crying. I was in a city I had never been in. Scot was a good 45 minutes behind me. I had been traveling all day and hadn't had lunch. I needed to find a place to move into
fast and I had no idea where to start.
So I started driving along the main road I had come in on. I got turned around a few times, looked at a couple houses with for rent signs in the lawns, and cried some more. After Scot went to the house and told the owner that we were definitely not going to rent from him, I met him at a Barnes and Noble where he searched on Craigslist for any 2-3 bedroom house in the area of town we were looking in in our price range. He must had emailed a dozen people in 30 minutes. We went to Wendy's for my first fast food dinner in I don't know how many years and ate something in hopes of a phone call and some sanity. By this time it's about 7:30.
At 7:40 a gal named Katie called Scot and offered to show us her rental that night. Her tenants were moving out the next morning and it needed to be cleaned still, but it was available to be moved into if we really needed to. So we met her at 8:30 and let me tell you - it's perfect. We're still doing some cleaning, but it's SO worth it. It's a side by side duplex that looks like one very large old brick home. It has a fenced in front lawn with nice big trees. It has large open rooms on the main floor and hardwood. I have an actual dining room and pantry. It's a galley kitchen, but I actually have a lot of counter and cabinet space. There are 3 rooms and a bathroom on the 2nd floor (our room, the boys room, and an office). The 3rd floor is a renovated attic where some would put the master bedroom, but we're making it the rec room/guest room area. It's huge and I love it. I'm going to have my sewing area up there, too! The basement has
tons of dry storage, a laundry area, a work table/bench area and a half bath that's in good shape! We can paint whatever we want. I have a dishwasher and a front porch and tons of Lilac bushes, rose bushes, and a huge Hydrangea bush outside. Ahhh....and it's all on a cute little tree lined street with in walking distance of cute little shops, unique places to eat and the nicest library (with a fabulous children's section) I've ever been to! It's in a safer neighborhood, too.
The best part? Our next door neighbors (as in, the people we share our kitchen wall with) are a young married couple (she's 18, he's 22 and they've been married for 4 months) who are not only Christian, but reformed! Angela is he sweetest little thing ever and her husband Peter and Scot hit it off great. We're already great friends and we both look forward to fun dinner parties in the years to come.
OK. So back to Sunday night. When we were done looking at the house and before we had told her yes, Katie asked us if we would like to come home and stay with them for the night. A little crazy - but while touring the house we got to talking and it turns out that she is not only a Christian, but she homeschools her 6 kids! She felt sorry for us and since we didn't have a place to stay except a hotel, she offered us to come home with her. I about cried. Needless to stay we had a very comfortable guest room to sleep in that night and we said yes to the house. It was a miracle for her, too, because she didn't want the place to be empty and no one had been interested in it for the last 2 months it had been posted and she had just that morning given it all up to the Lord!
So Monday morning arrives and Scot went to get the truck to start unloading and I'm back at Katie's house. She's making all sorts of phone calls and I'm not really paying attention until she tells me that they're all ready to go.
Go? Go where? She had called her other homeschool mom friends and was putting them all to work. There were about 6 teenage boys who helped Scot unload the truck in a record time of 2.5 hours, and about 6 girls, plus 3 moms, who helped me clean, unpack the kitchen, set up my room, and take care of Drew. One mom brought lunch for everyone, we had dinner at another family's home that night, and Angela brought us dinner the night after that. I think at one point or another during Monday every one of us adult women cried at the goodness of the Lord! It was such an authentic and very real showing of Christ and the way The Body works.
There are times when things happen and you don't think about the Lord's hand being a part of it. And there are times when you're in a situation and you just know you're going to see how the Lord's hand worked
once you're out of the situation. And then there are time like this where the Lord's hand is so very evident through each and every step.
I praise God for HIS work in these families lives and in our life. I praise HIM for keeping us safe and guiding us to the perfect house. I praise HIM for giving me friends. I praise HIM for the unexpected - a dishwasher, the ability to paint, a pantry, and space to entertain - all things I thought I was going to go without.
In closing - if you've made it this far - to catch you up to now (Thursday night). Mom and Evan came in last night and we've been working hard. We've painted, we've cleaned, we've made the house look like a home. I think we'll have everything done by tomorrow. Boxes are all emptied and things are looking normal. Evan is adjusting well. He's sleeping in a big boy bed, now, and while it's a little challenging at bedtime, we were better tonight than last night - and i'm hoping tomorrow night is even better than tonight. Drew is great and it's wonderful to see the brother's together and have my mom here as a nice transition for Evan.
I'll have pictures up - hopefully - tomorrow.
