It’s Tuesday, August 9 and it has been a full week since we finished up at our house. Originally we were trying to be out by August 1st, but we were in way over our heads and didn't yet realize it. Fortunately, some good friends and relatives stepped in to lend a hand or we would still be there packing even now. Many thanks to my mom, Melissa's Aunt Debbie, my mother-in-law Trudy, Kate and Storly, Steve and Keri, Brad, Todd, Amanda, Dorelle, Bethany, Emily and anyone else I may have forgotten!
We still don’t have internet connection at my mother-in-law’s house, so even though much has happened in the past two weeks, I haven’t been able to communicate in that time. Let’s just say we have been busy … and I have moved my share of boxes from here to there … and sometimes back to there. I believe I have been permanently cured of materialism. In the midst of all this STUFF, I found myself wishing us back to Haiti where we stayed in a borrowed house and didn't have access to any or OUR stuff beyond what Melissa packed in a few suitcases. Sure, there were some inconveniences, but nothing that got in the way of living...
This was the wackiest moving experience Melissa and I have ever endured. It was exhausting to sort through items and determine which way to throw each thing: Garbage? Garage sale? Take to Trudy's house with us? Leave for the renters? Put in long term storage? Put in storage to take to Haiti with us in a year? Give to some specific person?
The hermit crab went to the renters' kids. Three surviving fish and their tank went to our neighbors. Two boxes of books went to the church library. Our big-boned sectional couch was BARELY squeezed out of our basement and taken to Trudy's house ... only to discover there was no way it was going to be squeezed into her basement. My brother Russ came to get it instead.
On Monday, August 1st, we were making decent time with the final odds and ends around the house and the renters were assuring us that they weren't moving in until Wednesday, so Melissa took the kids into the pool for one last swim. While that was going on, Beka called from OMS and I put her on speaker phone by the pool as she announced that we had formally been accepted as missionaries by OMS! Now it feels like we are making some progress!
The kids have continued to be very flexible through this part of the process ... although Dats (age 10) has gotten a bit teary eyed a few evenings. Seems the one thing he is missing the most from our house is his bed. I had made it specially for him and for Ida about three years ago. I didn't realize how much it meant to him. I may have to build him something in Haiti!
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