Our Story, Part 10 (Final)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

Our last day in New York was a whirlwind.  Claude had to drive to Connecticut to have a hitch installed on our van and pick up the trailer.  Then he finished his last half-day of work, said good-bye to his co-workers, and headed over to our apartment building to pack up.

Back on the home front, I was finishing some last minute packing and trying to keep the kids from bouncing off the walls.  My neighbor was a lifesaver when she stopped by to help occupy the kids as I finished up.  And did I already mention that we had a 3-month-old?  That meant stopping every couple of hours to nurse him!

Our goal was to pack up, have a quick pizza dinner with a few friends, and get 3-4 hours of driving in that night.  Yeah...we were overly optimistic.  In the end, it took Claude a lot longer to pack the trailer than we had anticipated.  But we got it done...once we had some help from a friend to jam the last mattress in and latch the door.

Our little going away party consisted of some good friends and our last taste of New York style pizza.  :)

As we said our goodbyes and drove our little caravan down the street we had called home for the last six years I felt a strange sense of relief.  Yes, I was a little sad, but I think the few tears that I shed that night were out of stress.  Stress from the day of finishing up packing our life into a 5'x9' trailer.  Stress from three crazy weeks of packing and planning.  Stress from a total of seven very challenging years and many huge life changes in a short amount of time.  And relief, knowing that God was bringing out into green pastures - a chance to rest and settle into life with our growing family.

That night we only got 1 1/2 hours down the road.  It took us 3-4 hours because we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic...at 10pm.  Gotta love the NY metropolitan area!  And the second day wasn't much better.  We were tired, got a late start, and had several bouts of motion sickness to contend with.  Needless to say, by the third day we were ready get some serious driving in!

We finally hit our stride on day three and the rest was pretty smooth.  We found what worked to keep the kids occupied (and it wasn't the movies on the iPad that we thought would be so useful!).  We worked out a system of driving two hours and stopping for one to go potty and nurse the baby.  It was slow going, but at least we could get several driving sessions in each day.

When we arrived at our friends' house on October 30, 2012 we were ecstatic!

After a week of working hard to set up house, we enjoyed our last evening with my parents and got ready to jump into everyday life in Texas.

I'm still amazed at how God orchestrated every detail of our move.  Our rental house is just the right size for us and in a great location.  My parents were able to help us for our first week so that by the time they left and Claude had his first day of work, our house was fully furnished and nearly every box was unpacked.

The boys' and girls' rooms in our Houston house.  I wish they were this clean right now!  :)

Among these bookshelves, my parents helped us put together three beds, two additional shelves, and helped us stock and organize our kitchen, toys, and probably many other things I can't remember.  We would still be living out of boxes if it weren't for their help!

We found a church right away and were warmly welcomed from the beginning.  The kids and I started going to the park once a week to meet other homeschool families.  And even though we had our usual daily ups and downs, we could breathe.  A little less than a year later and I'm still in awe!

Then, just a few months after arriving we were thrilled to announce that our family would be growing again!  The Little 5 would be joining the Crew at the end of October, 2013 - exactly one year after our arrival in Houston.  Of course, we're still awaiting her exact arrival date...but what a great way to celebrate a year of rest and abundant provision from The Lord!