Here We Are...

Well, I am writing this on our second night in our new home. I know that everything sounded wonderful from our last descriptions but we realized that we might have romanticized our “find” a little. Now don’t get me wrong, it has everything we need and more, but we still are going through some “culture shock”. I remember reading about it in missionary books, a missionary family would go to a new place and feel so out of place, dealing with inconveniences and lower standards of living, that they would be depressed and out of sorts for some time. Well, that is how we feel now. Our landlord didn’t clean up the mess like we hoped. The two rooms with carpet (our children’s bedrooms by the way) were filthy some still bearing the “evidence” of animals. The porch screens were still hanging off along with the strong smell of cigarette smoke and dust that have kept our allergies burning since we arrived. So here we sit, surrounded by boxes and mess that has to be cleaned up before we can unload boxes. And if you have been keeping up with us, you know we already depleted our belongings by about 40% and now I am determined to do another 40% (starting with some of my tools that I have no place to store).

We were however blessed in many ways on this trip. I think that if God had not intervened we might have found it unbearable. First, we went to pick up the truck on Monday morning. I looked in front of the Uhaul place...no 17-foot truck. I went in and the elderly gentleman sort of winked and said, “no, I don’t have a 17’ truck but there is a 24’ for you out front. I thought you might need the extra space and the supplier said you could have it for the same price.” I couldn’t believe my ears! So now we could take all the things that we placed on the “stand-by” list (though we later wished we hadn’t). And so at about 3:30 PM that day (three hours later than anticipated) we rumbled down the road in our massive 24’ foot truck with everything easily fitted inside. The later start time changed our agenda a little as we planned on being past Nashville by bedtime. As it grew dark we began to see over a dozen baby deer scattered along the roadsides and began to get really nervous. So we decided to stop at Cadiz, KY Super 8. And let me tell you they had a pet room for $5 extra that was just as nice as could be. It had pretty honey pine furniture and smelled as clean as you could want right down to the sheets. We even left a big cleaning person tip because we were so impressed! And then when we finally arrived in Walland, TN I was scared to death to try to get that truck in our little driveway up that high (and narrow mountain road). I took the turn as wide as possible knowing that the length would probably cut the back tires into a ditch. I then said a prayer leaving the outcome in God’s hands and punched the gas. Somchow I made it in the drive and by another miracle turned that truck around and backed up to the porch. I was never so glad to get rid of something in my life as when I turned that thing in! A little while later a very nice couple from a local church ready to help us unload which was another blessing because we were so tired I don‘t think we could have done it alone. Then another individual came by with a casserole for supper. Once again, God has shown himself to be in the midst of this crazy adventure. What’s going to happen next? Tune in next time for the continuing saga...