wisconsin

hello all.
i decided to not use "ya'll" in my opening greeting as we are now in the North!

that's right folks- we have landed in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin!

a recap on the weekend's events...

Saturday- we were HUGELY supported by our Community Group (small group from church) who came from about 2-4:30 to carry all of our earthly belongings down a flight of stairs and out to the truck. there were moments of worry as our truck looked teeny and our belongings began piling up outside the truck- but thanks to all the hard working men, masterminding TETRIS kings and some determination... it all fit in.
THANK YOU soo much ya'll for coming and hauling it all for us- and caring so much about us!

then Lori,one of our friends from Comm. Group, brought us a YUM dinner which we ate in our empty apartment. it was strange to eat indian style on the floor of our BARE home. Jess and Cali shared one final meal with us. and then a funky rain storm with tornados in the surrounding area hit. it blew over and mom, dad, gow, sally and I all completely WORN out- headed to the Eddy's to crash.

it was GREAT to have a clean, comfy and HOME-y place to sleep that night as we were all zonked and gow and i were grieving our home, friends and Nashy-fam. THANK YOU Eddy's for loving us and taking us all in!

after a LONG nights sleep and a big ol breakfast, we pulled out around 10AM.
dad in his car, gow in the 17 foot uhaul- towing the Accord and mom, sj and I in the CRV-- all vehicles packed to the brim.
we drove that day until about 5pm... gow and dad stopping to help an older fella out with a broken belt and mom going LOOPY in the backseat while entertaining SJ. (she ended up sounding an whole lot like Ms. Doubtfire!)
thanks to mom's creativeness- sj did fantastically.

we did dinner, took a quick dip in the pool and then all went to bed early.
breakfast on Monday morning and we were on the road by 9:30AM, hit about 20 min. of Chicago traffic over the lunch hour and crossed the WI border by 1am.

i was telling SJ "welcome to CANADA" when we crossed the border cuz there was SNOW! everywhere! it was beautiful in the sun- but felt like another world as the white snow covered the ground and the HUGE sky was baby blue. if you haven't been to a place that is open and flat-- you really need to experience it! it is phenominal- beautiful- and soo different from the green rolling hills of Franklin/Nashy.

k- then we rolled into Lake Geneva about 2, Neal and Cyndie came at 3:30 to help unload the truck into my folks' garage.. and by about 5pm the truck was empty.
Cyndie brought over some great dinner, Emma and Timmy (Sj's cousins) entertained sally and we began the process of settling in.

my folks are so amazingly generous.
they drove down, packed us up, helped clean and cook, massively loved on and took care of SJ and now have given us their master bedroom and are sharing their condo with us.
it is humbling and hard to see them "making do" in their guest bedroom with limited closet space while we are taking over THEIR space.
thank you mom and dad- and the words hardly seem sufficient.

they are waiting to hear from the place in OR that they are planning to go and volunteer at this spring. pray with us as it is really what my folks want to do to share in the ministry there and to get my mom and her allergies to the coast as everything blooms this spring.

today was grocery shopping, trying to set up the comp and gow's work station and trying to unpack and get settled.... then emma and timmy came over for dinner, some stories and card games.

ok- this is a massive book. but some of you were praying with us- and wanted to hear how it went.
THANK YOU for the prayers and support.
we are thankful for such smooth "sailing" and praise God for such incredible friends and family.
bless you all that have made Nashville/Franklin our home.
miss you- and praise God for you.
also, thank you to Neal, Cyndie, mom and dad for the HOURS of man labor you have done to help us get here.

alrighty- will post some fun pix of this crazy weekend soon.
i am zonked and heading to bed.

night night