Almost Home

I realized as I was typing the title to this post that home could actually be one of many places now. I am very ready to be back in Baltimore with Hamp and Kit, yet each of the places I've been in the last 3 weeks has a part of my heart in it. Boston, where Michael has one year left of seminary before he graduates; Atlanta, where Matthew will begin his 5th year of teaching at Harrison; and Orlando, where I've just left Tiffany to begin a new life yet again. And of course our extended family and friends are mostly in GA, so that will always be truly home for me.

In the traveling and moving that has been our family's life for the past two years, I've learned that I really don't care anymore where I actually live. I have preferences, but these experiences have taught me that God is everywhere and His people are everywhere and this world is not the end of the story. Getting too comfortable here is probably the worst thing that could happen to us and while difficult a lot of the time, I'm glad we've had the chance to learn that somewhat...even though we got a very late start!

I must get some sleep, but wanted to share a few pictures from the last week or so that I haven't been able to do before now.

I think I last left you with me and Tiffany arriving in GA. She put a post on her blog that has pictures from the few days we were here, so I'm being lazy and letting you check that out if you want to.

We loaded the UHaul on Saturday in the very hot weather. Actually, that's using the term "we" very loosely. We had amazing help and as I told them, I think I've used my friend favor quota for the rest of my life. Thanks so much to Bob, Richard, Johnny, David, Jack, and everyone else who pitched in to help make it possible. We couldn't have done it without you! This was before we really got started so there was a little mischief still going on.








It warmed up quickly and by the end of the day, we were more than a little tired.



I've learned a few things about moving since we've had so much practice and one of them is when it's time to go, you just need to go. So even though we were tired, Tiffany was getting sick, and we did not smell like delicate flowers, we pulled away around 5:00 Saturday afternoon. Nikki was our fearless leader driving the UHaul, I followed in Hamp's truck, and Tiffany brought up the caravan along with Ellie, the very unhappy wondercat.







Driving with a cat is much harder in the summertime because you can't really turn the car with the AC running off. So we sacrificed some conveniences along the way such as eating inside.



After stopping in Tifton for the night, we got up Sunday morning and continued south toward their final destination.



Upon arriving, more of God's crazy children weathered the heat to help get everything unloaded. Thanks, Jenn, Will, and friends for all your help and excitement in making everybody feel welcome.

Nikki had gone to Orlando a couple of weeks ago and found the apartment and it's in a great area, close to any kind of store you could need, and they would agree that the most important part is they're only 10 minutes from Disney World. You can see part of the fireworks from their balcony and that was an exciting discovery last night.

It rained most of the last couple of days, but I was able to get a couple of pictures of the view from their balcony and parking lot. This is what they see when they look out their living room.



And this is the western sky overlooking their parking lot. Yes, there's a power line running through the area, but you can't really see it until you go to your car.



As an added bonus, I got to visit my Aunt Jeanne and two of my cousins, Mike and Jack, who live in Titusville which is only an hour away. She's my mom's sister and I'm hoping to get to see them more as I go visit Tiffany.





That pretty much catches you up. As you can imagine, there's lots of adjusting for the girls as they finish getting settled and figure out where to find a job. But even in the chaos, they're excited to be living together for this next year and can't wait to see what God has planned for them. And poor Ellie...she's just not as young as she used to be and is taking a little longer to bounce back, but she'll be fine. Sometimes there's just nothing to do but collapse in a heap and take a nap.



And me? I'm back in GA for the night to hopefully get rested enough to make it the rest of the way to Baltimore tomorrow. "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home"!