We Came, We Moved, We Left

The last six days of my life have been exhaustingly full, and our little family is so grateful for all the help we’ve received.  We would not have been nearly as successful without family and friends helping us physically and emotionally to accomplish all we needed to do to get ourselves from Kansas to our new locations.

Last Monday Andrew alerted his boss that on Thursday he would be dropping Emily and I off in Des Moines, IA to be picked up by my family and he would be back in time to work that afternoon.  He found out during that conversation that they needed another technician in Des Moines and it would work well for him to transfer up there.  We quickly switched gears from simply packing up the clothes and things Emily and I needed to packing up and cleaning the entire apartment so we could all leave in two days.  Despite our best efforts, there was still about an hour of work to do and no car space left at 9am Thursday morning when we had to pull out, so we decided that Andrew would drive back to Kansas on Sunday and take care of the remaining packing and cleaning.

Emily was in heaven with all of the boxes we were emptying out to get rid of them.

On Tuesday created a barricade with the couches to protect the items that were packed and waiting to be loaded into our car.

A last look at our apartment complex in Overland Park, KS.

Emily is showing off the keys on our walk to our friend’s home.  We spent A LOT of time with them this summer and are so grateful for our summer angels who had us over for many playdates and meals and were true friends when we needed them.

Wednesday night our friend braved the worst storm of the summer to come by one last time and help me out with a few things.  We realized we didn’t have any documentation of our friendship, so we snapped a picture – she was soaked and I was anything but clean.  We miss her and her family loads already!

After reaching Des Moines Thursday afternoon, we transferred all of the things from our little car to my family’s van.  Andrew headed off to work and I went to the Quad Cities with my mom and sister. We spent about 20 hours there, complete with a long overdue dentist appointment, and then hopped back into the van to drive to Indiana.  We made amazing time – 4 hours and 10 minutes and we didn’t need to stop once.  A true miracle with Emily in the car.

Our new neighbors welcomed us into their home and shared their dinner with us (thank you, thank you, thank you!).  We then unloaded the van and put things in the right area of the home to make more room.  We completed the night with a quick trip to the store for food and setting up air mattresses to sleep in our empty apartment.

Saturday around 1am my dad woke up and began his drive to Indiana.  We met him, along with some very kind men, at 7:30am with a moving truck at a storage unit.  We put all of our furniture into the truck and unloaded it at our apartment.  We were very ahead of our planned schedule so around 8:45 we went to our friend’s home where our remaining possessions were stored this summer. By 10am we had everything moved into our apartment, including a washer that was at a neighbor’s home. Around 10:30 we went to location number three to pickup our piano.  At noon we had a lunch break with Little Caesar’s Pizza. After lunch we went to location number four to get a dryer.  Then we all took a nap! My dad left less than twelve hours after he arrived to return back to Iowa.

Emily sitting outside of our new home. She is digging the front step.

Sunday morning we got an early start, packing up the van to head back to Iowa.  We went to church at 9am and then hit the road at 10:30.  After three hours we hit stop-and-not-really-go traffic on I-80.  In 1.5 hours we went THREE miles.  There was a severe accident so I-80 was closed for a few miles and all traffic was directed through a small farm town.  Emily fell asleep just as we got back on a moving highway, so we decided that even though we had all been sitting for 4.5 hours it was worth waiting for Emily to wake up before we got out.  As soon as she did wake up we grabbed some lunch at Arby’s and a quick bathroom break.

We set back out to finish the last 90 miles when we hit another traffic standstill.  What are the odds that we would hit two accidents that were so severe that I-80 was shut down yet again? The second tiny town that we detoured through seemed to think the extra traffic was a big deal.  People were taking pictures of us (or the ridiculously long line of cars and trucks) and lining up along the side of the roads and sitting down with drinks to watch.  We finally arrived home after SEVEN full hours in the car.  Emily once again was a champ, largely because her wonderful Aunt Christine spent a lot of time playing with her and feeding her.  We are grateful for the three extra hours we were able to listen to the audiobook.

Our little family of three is looking forward to actually inhabiting our home in a few weeks. We have much to be grateful for, much to enjoy now, and lots to look forward to.