Paper Chain Countdown....

This is a paper chain I and one of my students made. It's the days I have till I see Fred again. I also have a countdown on my kitchen calendar, my planner and my PDA. Obsessive much??

The first couple of weeks, I did pretty good. I even slept well at night, even though on the norm, I don't. So I thought, "ha, I can do this! no sweat!". Yeah, it only lasted a couple of weeks. I am miserable. I guess the best way to describe me right now is RESTLESS. I am SO ready to go.

My last day of work is this Friday. Even though the closing is not until March 31st, there are a lot of things I need to take care of that I didn't want a job to slow me down. Steph is moving into a new apt. this weekend (yay!) and I am hauling some of my furniture to her. Andy will be moving into his soccer coach's house sometime in the next 2 weeks and I want to help him with the transition. Mom still doesn't have a place, and quite frankly, I don't know what she is going to do. She has a lung biopsy scheduled for next week, so that will keep me busy for a couple of days.

Then, I will start preparing the house for the movers. I am going through tubs of stuff and consolidating, figuring out what will go with me and what will go on the truck. And we haven't found a house yet and our stuff may be going into storage, so I have to think long term what will we need....
I also want to take Andy and Steph to Disney one last time. THAT I am looking forward to!

And lastly, Becky and Tym are going to Israel for 2 weeks at the end of March and they have asked if I would stay with Matt and Katie. That works out great as my house will be empty after the 20th.

So the month of March will have me busy enough that I won't go crazy waiting. I DO NOT want to do this separation thing again. I absolutely hate it.

BY THE WAY, IT'S 38 DAYS!!!

It's Starting to Sink In

My house is sold. Wow. Not only is it amazing that it sold 3 weeks in the market. Everything about this transition has been smooth so far. Fred is settled in Texas and started his new job this past week.
But it is starting to really hit me, I am moving to Texas. I am leaving Florida, where I have lived since I was 10 years old. I am leaving my kids, my mom, my friends, to go to a place I know not very much about.
And I am leaving my home. I know that it's not healthy to hold on tight to material things. But I truly love my home. Mainly because I know it was a gift from God. How we got this house was yet another amazing set of events that only God could orchestrate. This was supposed to be IT. The house we were going to retire in, the grandkids were coming to visit me. This was the home I always dreamed of for my family.
I truly didn't think we would leave, even though we have been talking about moving to a quieter, slower pace area, I didn't think it would happen. And certainly not this quickly.
There are times when I get up in the middle of the night because I can't sleep, and I walk around the house. I FEEL God's presence in this house. We have had great fellowships with friends, small group meetings where it brought us closer to some wonderful folks.
The buyers came by tonight. He had a sister that was leaving town and he wanted to show her the house. So in comes the realtor, the buyer, his sister and 5 kids. The kids were running through the house (mainly chasing Kaya). It felt so odd. They are going to be living in my house in another month or 2.
This is going to be hard. Now, I have no doubt that moving to Texas is what God has planned for us. It's clear. But it is still going to hurt. And it's going to be an adjustment. A bigger one than I thought.