Sunday, February 28, 2016

Leaving Our Loved Youngsville Home

A whirlwind…. That has been my past couple of months. (Realistically, the past few years, but I’ll focus on this recent period.) My Little Men and I – okay, I really should call them ‘Young Men’ – joined Tim in Hilton Head, SC for New Year’s and my birthday. What a busy trip! House hunting filled the days via the computer (oh, yes, I brought an updated spreadsheet with us each day), city to city, and county to county. Our last day, we narrowed the search to five, and found our home. I’m so grateful to Stephanie (our wonderful realtor), and the Shelske’s for taking care of our beloved cat, Lily, and for much more!

Our last days in Youngsville were busy, fun, and sad. I wish we could have visited more people and said more goodbyes in person. We did engage in some nerf battles, peeled potatoes (sometimes the skin), ate good food with great friends, and worshipped with wonderful brothers and sisters when not packing. What a blessing for Joseph to join the choir and to hear the youth (and many other people each week) sing together one last time!

I am blessed by memories of friends who prayed, helped, visited, and stole me away for a break! I was going crazy with boxes everywhere. Praying for a miracle, our family continued hoping God would provide a way to remain in Youngsville. Once it was obvious God was moving us to Georgia, serious packing began. Even Lily helped. I tried to school as long as possible, while working with the realtors, inspections, due diligence, and other calls that come with moving. Yikes! I learned a few things myself, including installing insulation in a crawl space from YouTube. I thought I’d be finished a week before Tim came home (Feb 9th), leaving plenty of time for fun with friends. Ha! Many nights of less than four hours’ sleep, and it still took until the very end.

Our first celebration moving into Youngsville was John and Joseph’s 14th birthday. The last celebration occurred the day we signed our closing papers, February 10th - their 16th! Hmmm…. Born on Thursday (Thursday’s child has ‘far to go’) - I wonder how many times they’ll move around their birthday? Maybe they’ll just travel.

Wednesday we also picked up the U-Haul, enjoyed Flat Rock (but the goodbyes were difficult), and invited friends over for one more Nerf war. Why not? Are we not young whippersnappers who can stay up until 3:30 to finish packing and cleaning? Ha! Thursday, loading up day, flew like a gale! Such amazing help –grateful and blessed! I believe we began close to 9, and the loading was mostly finished by 1. We still cleaned, vacuumed, and divided some plants. We brought the few hens and chicks we still had from New York, some ferns, lilies, and a hosta (only one clump – became sidetracked with the new owners arrival and forgot to get more along with the Moss’s ginger – ugh!) I love the stories that come with shared plants.

Thursday night we were pooped! It felt great to get cleaned up at our friends’ house. Elaine and Mike graciously invited us for a delicious rib dinner, apple dessert hearts, and some games of aggravating aggravation. Mum’s the word on who won. Then we crashed with prayers about the next morning’s warning of icy roads as we thought about the journey ahead…

                                  ~Jenny~