What's Happening

So, the moving has begun.

I am packing up our household into two parts: One trailer (ours--we own it) will have some large furniture items on it I received from my grandmother, a freezer, and a bunch of other "winter" stuff, and will remain in storage at my Mom's in Turbeville for a couple of months. I'll be leaving Harrisonburg with that first trailer on Tuesday, July 27. The girls and I are going to stop in Lynchburg on the way down to visit with the In-Laws one more time to say goodbye.

We should arrive at Mom's Wednesday. We'll be there for just a few days, visiting and saying our goodbyes to everyone. Then, we will drive back up to Harrisonburg with my sister, Polly, on Sunday, August 1st. Monday morning I'll be picking up trailer #2 from U-Haul, and we'll blitz through the last bit of packing, loading all the personal items, kitchen, bath, and clothing into that, and spend one last night on the floor in the townhouse. Hopefully everything will be A-OK by the next morning, and we'll do a final walk-through with the landlord, settle everything, and be on the road Westward-Ho by Tuesday morning, Aug. 3. If we get bogged down (entirely possible) we still have till Aug. 8th in my contract to be out of the townhouse. Of course, the UHaul is only rented for 10 days total, so we could run into trouble there.

We expect to arrive at our new home in Yelm, WA on or around August 8th, barring any major Events.

Anyhow, that's the PLAN. :) As of now, things are looking good.....may God continue to bless us with good things and cheerful hearts on this Epic Journey. :) At the moment, Violet has a fever, and I'm not sure where that's headed. She has no other symptoms yet, but we'll see how that turns out.

I NEED your prayers, folks. God has to be in this, or I, in my own strength, will utterly fail this task. I don't want this moving thing to become a black hole for my faith, or parenting. It's been a slippery slope trying to gently mother 2 girls while doing so so so so so much else. I live on the verge of tears, with anger hedging me in all about, and guilt a dark cloud over my head. But, I know the Lord will provide me with His strength to maintain joy and gentleness with my children if I just ask Him, and let Him. Please remember our family in your prayers.

Also, Ben.....he's in a state of "hurry up and wait" which the Army is famous for. He's all packed and ready to go, with an expected arrival date of.....vaguely......early September???? If you can imagine being "ready to go" for that long. :( We need your prayers, family....we're in a very vulnerable state right now. May God be glorified in our trials, may they not go to waste and count for nothing but tears. Lord, bring forth the Gold.

As of now, we will be reunited as a family again in early September (possibly sooner.) We expect to be on Block Leave in October, and plan on flying back out to Virginia to visit around. We purchased an X-Terra which is waiting for us in Richmond, and we'll be picking that vehicle up in Oct., driving it around Williamsburg and other fun places....and hitching our trailer up to it eventually (from Mom's)....and finally driving it at a leisurely place back out to Washington via a lot of other awesome places like the Grand Canyon. :) We have an extensive and spectacular family vacation planned for October. We also hope to get to visit with many of YOU guys on the way back out west.

That's it for now! Once again.....pray, pray, pray!

I'm back to packing.