Big Changes Part 2...Getting Settled

 You can read Part 1 of Big Changes here I didn't go into how exactly we chose the area of Florida that we did. I don't want to give too many details about our location publicly. I will go into it a bit more in part 3.

Closing on our home was set for a month from when we went under contract. In those short weeks we packed, we did inspections and repairs and said goodbye to people and places we love so much.  It was a hard month.

Ryan and I played here as children and this has been a special place to visit

A favorite park

On July 11th we worked from morning to night packing up the truck, Ryan's Dad left with the truck that night I could go into all the little miracles and headaches of those last few days. How the reservation we made for the big 26ft truck was somehow canceled. Well no, the reservation wasn't cancelled it was still there but it didn't matter the truck we had reserved was gone. Ryan and his Dad had to drive 3 hours early Saturday morning to get a truck in the state next door. There were blessings too, our church is mostly elderly folks who couldn't help us with our move. Our old church where we were married has a moving ministry and since we're still connected through Ryan's family several people came helped us pack up our truck.

We slept on sleeping bags in our empty house that night and woke up and cleaned the house all day on the 12th, finishing up last minute projects. That evening we said goodbye to our house of many years for the last time. We made a video walking through all the rooms and saying goodbye. After all that work we were beat but we were also desperate to get this transition over for the kids. Little ones do not love seeing their house empty, the kids needed this whole thing to be done. So that evening once all the cleaning and goodbyes were complete, we packed the kids into the van and drove all night long to the rental house in Florida. The trip went so well! I mean it was really difficult, Ryan and I were beyond exhausted from all the work but we took turns driving and napping and the kids got naps as they could. The littlest one didn't love sleeping in his car seat but got a pretty decent nights rest as long as I sat next to him and held his hand (Thank the Lord we have an 8 passenger van and I could fit in the back with the kids as needed!). 

After 18 hours of driving we arrived at the rental house at nearly 3pm. Our truck and Ryan's Dad was waiting for us there! I won't go too much into the drama of our arrival....Actually I will, it was difficult. We discovered that the property management company we had so carefully chosen (highly reviewed and well established) had profoundly dropped the ball. It seems the person managing our property had been doing a crappy job and was fired. In the week before the move we knew that our point person had changed but what we hadn't realized is that the company hadn't actually made sure that our property was ready for us! The house was disgusting. The carpets hadn't been cleaned, there was water damage in an area of the house. There was damaged walls and electrical outlets weren't working, the garage door was broken. The bathrooms were atrocious and both toilets were broken!!! It was so bad. After packing a truck all day on Saturday, scrubbing and cleaning all day Sunday and driving through the night (with 5 kids!!!) all night Sunday and into the afternoon Monday: I was shattered.

We had to get settled though the kids needed us to get things as normal as quickly as possible. I ran down to the grocery store (truth be told it was a 3 trip process, thankfully we have a Winn Dixie 5 minutes away!) to grab heavy duty cleaning supplies and I spent 3 hours scrubbing the black ringed, hair crusted tubs (I am not kidding it was so very wrong, I still feel horrified and angry when I think about it) and dirty broken toilets (thankfully one was usable but you had to stick your hand deep in the tank, lovely!) and sinks. I scrubbed and hung the shower curtains. I scrubbed the hard water calcified broken kitchen sink, I did everything I could to make the best of a bad situation. The next day Ryan's brother came out to help us unpack the truck an take Ryan's Dad back to where they lived (about an hour and a half away). Ryan's Dad is very handy and he was able to get the garage door patched up enough to use until the PM company could send a repairman. I had packed for this move as carefully and thoughtfully as I could and I had the kitchen  and living room unpacked and "normal" by the end of Tuesday. Ryan's Dad had all the kids beds built and set up (Seriously, God bless that man) and their rooms were "normal" and ready for them. We were completely settled and had a usable house before his Dad left Tuesday! Miracles, so many miracles happened that weekend, it was unreal.

Moving is hard, making it feel like home as quickly as possible!

By the end of the first week I had all the boxes out of the rooms and every thing as settled as they were going to get in this transitional housing. The house is what it is, it's too small for us and it's cramped but we've mad the best of it. As frustrating as the disgusting greeting was and the damage we discovered (not as picture or shown in the zoom walk through!), I'm thankful. We plan to move out before our lease is up and we have pictures of everything that greeted us. The company still hasn't repaired some things that we've told them about, we have good leverage to break our lease early without penalty.  And that's what we plan to do because we found a new home! More on our Hunt for Home in Part 3!

Before I close I do want to say that even though some things went sideways, the overall feelings I have when I think of our move is awe and peace. There was so much peace even in the exhaustion and frustrations. The memory of our drive down here is so sweet to me, covered in a fog of exhaustion but still so sweet it was a really special trip and driving through the night made the first 14 hours FLY. The  last 4 were rough but still the kids did absolutely amazing. We have some seriously amazing people in our family (including our incredible children) and we had some seriously wonderful prayer warriors covering us on that journey. It was a good time even if it was hard. 

The Hunt for Home coming soon!