Dear friends,
We are getting down to the wire regarding the big HUGE move. It is early on Tuesday and Jesse leaves tomorrow around noon for Kenya. Jenni and I will go to the airport with him while Greg stays home and gets the contract on our rental signed by a young family. They seem sweet and may end up buying eventually. Our own home is rented for the year also. We had it up for sale or rent for 3 weeks and then when a renter showed up, we went that direction. After we rented to her, someone came to give us a full price offer, and since our home was gone, they bought the house accross and down the street.
The moving truck comes here on Friday, and they will move the furniture and boxes and take the beds apart and reassemble them, etc. at our new home. It is not a do-it-yourself kind of deal. Partners is helping with the move and we are grateful.
I have a confession to make. I am challenged in the area of paper clutter. My dear friend and mentor, Jeannie, and I do paper sorting nights together and share as we toss and sort. She decided that we are both "people people" and therefore other things generally seem more important than sorting paper and dealing with innert piles when we can be involved in or changing lives, or sharing with friends, or offering hospitality. Those things are gifts given to both of us by God, so we can't help but use those gifts. The end result of this is that I have many boxes to sort quickly through and toss the needless things and find the important ones. I don't want to drag useless things to Spokane. I have had friends help me and have gotten through a lot, but there is more to go. So in the next few days, pray that I would be able to successfully deal with what is left of that chore and not overdue it physically to get that done. I generally procrastinate in this area, but the gig is up!
We have friends coming probably tomorrow, Wed. and Thursday to help pack. Then on Friday evening, our small group is going to come after the movers are gone and help us vaccum, dust and sweep the house. Cupboards are mostly done and 300 boxes or so are already in storage where the moving truck will go first.
Greg will leave early on Saturday morning and drive the 15-16 hours to Spokane and get there in the evening with our freezer in the back of the Tacoma truck. He will plug it in and if possible will get some new neighbors to help him unload it that night. Monday morning he will be back to work at Partners. The moving truck will get there with our stuff sometime next week. There has been a Partners family of 12 staying in our house this week. I am excited that it could be available to them!
Jenni, Allison and I will stay with friends near here after Greg leaves, finish details and last good-byes and leave for PA on Wednesday (7/18) morning- early. We will get to Pittsburgh on Thursday and see Uncle Fred and Aunt Beth and cousins there. We will leave Jenni's college gear in their barn and on Friday the 20th, we will go to Benton and see Greg's parents and his sister and some other family. Saturday we will join up with Allison's boyfriend Josh, who will drive up from Millsboro, MD and join us for our nephew's wedding in Hershey. Caleb is one of the twins Laura's age.
Allison plans to spend the week in MD with Josh's family and Jenni and I will go back to Benton. I hope to go see my mother and brother in Bath, NY on Tues/Wed and then back to Benton, and on Friday (7/27) Jenni and I will go pick up Allison (not sure where yet) and drive back to Pittsburgh for Wels' wedding. He is Greg's cousin and a great friend who has visited us many times. Although I took his request to find him a wife seriously, he managed to find one on his own, and by all accounts, has done a wonderful job!
Then Jenni, Allison and I will take off and head back to Denver. We will see friends visiting from Central Asia (we hope!) and rest on Monday (7/30). Jesse will get back from Kenya on the 25th in the evening and stay with friends until we get back. We will leave again with him on the 31st and drive the 15 hours to Spokane to Greg and our new home.
I think you get the point that this involves a lot of logistics, and we would appreciate prayer for the Lord to give us all safe travels as we go these various directions. Moving alone requires dealing with so many details, and Greg has been a champion at getting all of that taken care of. We had a party with friends and former Caleb Project staff at a park on Saturday. About 50 gathered and it was a very special time. We got to say good-byes to many we used to work with and prayed together. On Sunday our church had a lunch for us and a Partners staff member who lives in Colorado Springs came to give a presentation about the ministry. I think everyone there could understand how the Lord gave us a desire to work with this ministry that helps nationals in the 10/40 Window to do the ministy that God has given them to do in their own countries. It is so exciting! I wrote a poem to express our sentiments about leaving. I ended it by saying:
"You're not loosing us, you're gaining a home,
When in the future to the northwest you rome!"
Maybe I will write the whole poem later. Now, I need to stop procrastinating and do boxes and sleep. My shoulder hurts due to the torn rotator cuff, but I know it isn't cancer and that it can be repaired after we move, so for now I am living with it. My jaw is gradually getting less numb from January's surgery on the infection in my jawbone. My surgery site from mid June is healing, but has a build-up of fluid in it that is occasionally hitting a nerve. That will go down over time and really isn't bad. I am tired, but will get through this week by God's grace and with the help of lots of friends. I am a blessed woman! I will be relieved when I can sleep in on August 1st in our new home at 805 E. Huron Drive, Spokane, WA 99208. We'll leave the light on! Come visit us, you hear?! Blessings- Nancy
