Moving the Stuff

April 30

So...the movers have been at our house the last three days.

I have to say...I love moving to new places and meeting new people.  I was not always this way and there are still times when I wish we stayed in one place like most people.  BUT...such is life and even though we seem to "change houses as often as most people change shoes" (as my big brother informed me)...we love our life and know that God does have a plan if we are willing to follow and be faithful.  This move can definitely account for that...He has been with us every step of the way...bringing everything together better than we could have planned.

On Monday, we had four ladies arrive for a full day of packing.  They swept through the garage and adjoining rooms in no time.  Then they were introduced to our love of reading and our vast collection of books!  The supervisor of the group heard we had a lot of books, so she asked if I thought it would take about five boxes to get them all...I laughed...no ma'am...it turned out to be 50 boxes!  Three of the ladies spent the rest of the day in the library.  The supervisor worked on the children's rooms downstairs.

At the end of the day, I spoke with the supervisor...I felt so bad for them because I found out they can not leave the site throughout the day...not even for lunch...so they ate in their cars the first day.  I offered to cook a meal for them and they were very pleased with the idea...so I set out to make a spaghetti lunch meal for the next day.  I used all my leftover items from my fridge and pantry so it all worked out well for all involved.  I even had time to make a molasses cake.  I guess that is what happens when you can finally relax and sleep well knowing everything is going to be okay.

Kind of like the moment you place your trust in God....hmmmmm.

The children were also at ease about the situation.  They were happy doing their school work and playing in the front yard together.  The supervisor would later tell me that she was very impressed that the children were so well behaved and helped each other.  YAY!!!!  I love it when others see our children together and when the children are behaving well enough to be worthy of comment.  I must say it was nice to be able to complete school work by lunch...play with the children and even go to the pool at the end of the day.

The next day...the ladies arrived and completed the upstairs by lunch time.  Brendan and Zaira watched one of the ladies pack up our game closet.  They really enjoyed seeing how she packed and telling her about the games they play.  She patiently listened.  The other children continued to work hard on school and were done by noon.  A couple of men arrived mid-morning to box up mattresses and other big items.  They left before I could offer them lunch, but the ladies seemed to enjoy it and we had a chance to talk about California, moving and more.  By mid-afternoon, the ladies were joined by another pair of ladies to finish the job by 4pm.  They were all so nice and wished us well.  I was happy to take a snap shot of them before they left and promise a good report.

The next morning the truck arrived to be loaded.  I was sad to say that the four men who arrived were not so friendly.  It was all business and one was completely unprofessional (however, I did learn later that he was a day laborer).  The sad part of the day came when they tried to load my big desk without taking it apart (even though I told them it should be) and the desk now has a crack along a main piece of the board that holds the bottom together.  I told the main driver that I was not upset that it was broken so much as that they did not listen to me to avoid the situation...and the fact that they wanted to say that it was old damage to get out responsibility.  They did not like that we had so many books...cursing the entire time but I guess if I had to load 50 boxes of books that I did not care about I might feel the same way.

One thing I do not understand is how the movers can take our things away without knowing how much it weighs and have no opportunity to pull things back off the truck to avoid overcharge fees.  We were allowed 12,000 pounds and we went over 3000 pounds...I dread the bill that is to come for those extra pounds.

At the end of the day, I shook the man's hand holding it for an extended time to look him in the eyes and say...You have all our earthly possessions in that truck but none of that matters...I just want to be careful and have safe travels.  I think he thought that was odd from the expression he gave but it was my way of blessing him regardless of his attitude.

May God bless us all as we travel the distance across country.