Moving Fun

Our internet is now up and running. Yay! Apparently it was a pretty big problem that went further than just the connection to our house. But, it's working beautifully now.

As for the house...well, it's slowly coming along. But, we're much further along than we would have been without all the help we had on Saturday!

When Doug came over here first thing Saturday morning, it was still doubtful as to how much we could move. The hallway was still a wet pool of polyurethane. He came back over with a fan and space heater, though, determined to get it as dry as he could.

Meanwhile, we knew we had one person from church coming to help. We also knew we had a place to send the kids for the day. I figured I'd send the kids to Mrs. Joy for the morning while we got the big furniture moved, and then I'd go get them and we'd see where we were going to go from there. But, that's not how it turned out.

We ended up with not just one but four men from church, each with a truck, to help with the move. I almost couldn't keep up with them!! By mid-afternoon, they not only had almost everything out of the old house and brought over here, but they also had each piece of furniture in its appropriate place, beds set up, many of the boxes in their appropriate rooms, and the church trailer Doug had packed tight on Thursday totally unloaded! Mrs. Joy kept the kids until after 4:00 so we could get as much done as possible, and much did get done.

So far I have the kids' rooms mostly done, but most of my time and energy has been poured into the kitchen. It needed a lot of work before I could even begin unpacking the boxes - much scrubbing, pulling out old liner, and putting in new. I'm not one who has to have lined cabinets, but these desperately needed it! I think I finally have the kitchen mostly done at this point, so I'm ready to move on to the rest of the house.

As for the house, well, it's huge! The number I've heard is 2800 square feet. I told Doug that it seems the more we commit to paring down our stuff and junk, the bigger our houses get! I'll take it - and I'll keep getting rid of stuff, too. We never know what the Lord's making room for in our home and family.

I'll have more pictures soon, but just to give you an idea of the size, here's the view from the kitchen door through the family room all the way down the hall.
And here's just the hall. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, family room, dining room, kitchen, large laundry room, and large storage room off the carport. We like it!

The Light at the end of the Tunnel...

...was not a train after all! :-) There were a few doubtful days, but all is falling into place. We were miraculously able to move into the house Saturday and now are working hard to steadily unpack. We are all worn out, but determined to get it done. But, we would be several days behind where we are now were it not for all of the help! Moving day was amazing, and I will have to share soon how it all fell into place.

But, for now, our internet - although supposedly hooked up - is not working, and repeated calls for help are as of yet unanswered. So, since tapping all of this out on the BlackBerry is a bit tedious, I'll save further updates for the time when we have internet.

Thanks for praying! The prayers have been felt!

Tapped out while on the go!

Still No Move

After our delay of last weekend, we put a halt to most packing and have just tried to stay sane. The blessing was that we got to be away from home for three days this week. The kids headed to Monroe with Doug's parents Monday morning while Doug and I headed to Benton for the AR Baptist State Convention's annual meeting.

Oh, how wonderful it was! It is so incredible to be a part of a group of churches and individuals who are truly working to further God's kingdom. We feel that we gained much to both help us move our church forward and spur our church to involvement with the work of the convention. We also feel that our time there was well-spent. We came home utterly exhausted, and yet renewed at the same time. It was definitely energy well-spent, both on behalf of our church and for our own strengthening as pastor and wife.

Then we came home. Today was supposed to be day one of moving, working through the rest of the weekend with the final things moved on Saturday. But, all of that stuff that was supposed to be done Saturday and Monday wasn't touched. We have been told that we can still move in on Saturday, but we are skeptical. After being stoutly promised that we could move last Saturday and then today, we are not putting too much stock in the "commitment" made to us. I must confess, it has been a good lesson for our children (and a good reminder for us) of how important it is to keep our word and hold to our commitments. The girls are seeing first hand how it hurts when people do not hold to their word. Although the circumstances are making it hard for us as a family to know what to do right now, I am finding that learning experience to be a blessing.

Yes, I'm very much trying to practice rejoicing right now, and it is definitely hard. But if I can't rejoice in little things like this, how could I ever rejoice in truly bad situations? So, I continue to make that my goal.

Please pray for us as we balance all of this. Here are a few specifics:

Doug's wisdom on balancing work and the move. He has the vacation time, and has technically used less than half of it between our mini-vacation and the days he has taken for this move. But, even with vacation days there are things that come up for a pastor. And, many of those things seem to be hitting right now. So, he's torn between taking his vacation time to help here while taking care of business via email and phone as much as possible and being in the office to take care of things.

As of tomorrow we use up all of the scheduled time off for school. But, with the exception of a few things, school boxes are currently buried somewhere in the back of the church trailer. So, please pray that we will be able to catch up quickly.

Instability affects certain members of our family very greatly. Those members have held up pretty well, but are now beyond their limit. Those who handle it a little more smoothly are struggling now as well.

Thanks for praying!

Our internet will be shut off here tomorrow, so we'll be back to update as soon as we get moved!