Our Moving Story, which I pray we never do again

After years of living in the Rio Grande Valley, our address has changed.

Years ago, we moved to to border of Mexico and Texas for mission work.  We were much younger then.  We had little babies and lived on faith in Jesus (we still do.)  We would coordinate with non-denominational churches (mostly) and lead them for short term mission trips on the border.  We loved it!

My spiritual gift is mostly administration and my husband’s is teaching and discipleship.  It worked well for us to be a team in these ventures.

We loved to see someone who had a heart for evangelism and see them lead others to the Lord.  It was a powerful season.

But, seasons change. We started having more babies and started focusing on our family and homeschooling.

This past fall, we started looking to move to East Texas.  In a nutshell, a job for my hubby opened up, we fixed up our home and sold it.  Then the new season starts…thus our moving story – which I pray we NEVER have to repeat!

After just a few weeks of showing our home, we finally had our buyers.  They turned out to be so precious.  The couple are both Principals.  How awesome is that our home is going to someone who loves educating and helps the community?!  I was excited to be able to pass on our home to someone who appreciates seeing others learn.

Our closing was set for Friday.  It came and went and our house was not completely packed.  We just had too much stuff.  Plus, our Bubba Uhaul truck was too full.

I was stressed.

They wanted the keys by 5:00 or so in the afternoon, which we wanted too.  Looking back, we didn’t have to give them, because their bank and the Title company didn’t fund us until the following Tuesday, thus making our closing delay as well.  But, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.…came into play.

So what does a homeless family do that has run out of room for all their earthly possessions – we called on our sweet neighbor (who my daughter calls Tia D which translates into English – Aunt Diva), who had just cleaned out her garage.  Yep, we filled it up.  Then we slept on her couch for the night (because we had had very little sleep the last week) and left in the morning with hubby driving the Bubba Uhaul truck with my brother’s trailer behind it and my SUV with our trailer packed to the rim.

Oh what a long trip to my parents house – like 9 long hours of watching the trailer jumping and his axle was bent so the wheels looked as if they were going to pop off with every bump.  I also was wearing sunglasses that the kids found at the beach because my were so scratched.  I am not sure if they were playing games on me – sometimes I felt that I was in a long dream.

The drive was so long.  For fun, the kids strapped Woody to the front of  “Bubba.”   I can’t tell you how much laughter was good for the soul at this point.

After arriving at my Mom’s home, we dropped off the kids and most of our earthly goods and we were on our way back to the RGV with another borrowed trailer from another friend.  Another 9 hours of driving.

It was kind of nice – like a very long date.  One that we wouldn’t have again in the very near future.

We arrived at my dear friend’s house and had our stuff loaded up in an hour or so with a couple of teenagers that are friends to my boys.  It was hard to say goodbye to them.

Another night of sleeping on my friend’s couch, we left the following morning.

Goodbye to all the Palm Trees.  A chapter in our life closed.

Another 9 hours of driving.

We get to the north side of Houston and my brother calls.  He is close behind me on the freeway.  So we get to make a short stop and see some of my favorite people!

Then we get to my Moms.  And we wait.  And it rains every day.

I love the rain.

It seems our appraisal for our new house is holding us up. We were supposed to be closing on Monday, then Tuesday then prayerfully on Friday.

Don’t you just love the Real Estate World? <Insert my most extreme sarcasm here.>

Well, we decided to drive Thursday night to East Texas for our closing Friday.  Except my hubby has the hardest time hooking up the new trailer to the Uhaul in the rain.  It looks like it would fit – except it doesn’t.  So the trailer hitch bends and we have to call the owner, our friend, for help.  My hubby is more than aggravated to say the least.  Our friend assures us – he would have thought the exact same thing.  It could have happened to anyone.  It is kind of funny, but no one laughs.  Been there?

We finally get on the road.  And the Lord gives us the most beautiful sunset.

And I get hungry.

So we stop by Whataburger for something hot and some caffeine.

She was supposed to be my traveling partner for the next 3 hours.  So we take a fast photo and get back on the road.

But…then Bubba the Uhaul went berserk and started smoking.  I mean some major BLACK SMOKE.  I was behind it in my SUV and trailer and could barely see the road.

I call my hubby on his cell phone and scream (because you can’t hear anything in Bubba) that his truck looks like it is on fire.

So…we make a Uturn and add water to the engine or something under the hood.  We try it again.

And more smoke.

We drop it off at a friend’s garage who is a mechanic and called the owner.  He will have to look at it in the morning – and then combine rides.

We have a closing at 10:00 am and must get on the road.

We don’t get to East Texas until 2:00 am. But had time to walk through our “almost” home.

The next morning – we are almost late to closing.  However, the closing went amazingly well.  I have no idea what they had us sign.  We were too tired to care.  But, the people here so sweet and kind.  Seriously, I think we are going to LOVE this area.

We get the keys and we wait for our moving crew aka my sweet siblings and parents.

Our sweet family, rented another UHaul truck for us.

(Bubba the original truck died and is now going to be made into a gooseneck trailer – RIP Bubba!  I can’t even begin to explain how much a blessing Bubba was to us…he was a storage truck for us when our house was on the market and made a couple of trips with no problems.  Seriously, a true blessing.) 

Then they unloaded Bubba (basically an entire house) into the other new truck.   Talk about the sweetest act – ever.

Then they delivered the truck to us the next day and unloaded it.  This was NOT a little task.  This was HUGE!  We are so very grateful!

I can’t tell you how exhausted we have been and it doesn’t look to let up anytime soon.

But, we look out the front windows and realize the LAKE is our view.  Oh, it is so worth it.

The Lord is so faithful.  We weren’t even looking for lake property and He delivered.

So we are still alive and kicking just been doing tons of remodeling.

Until next time…

Blessings to you!  You are loved!