Life on the Road

(SIGH)
To say I've adjusted to life in a new land and in a new phase of life is a generous statement. We rolled into Orlando this week on Thursday around 7pm to much fanfare; long time friends, The Baileys were at my parents house and helped unload our van and black sedan in the 15 minutes it took for my mom's homemade pizza to finish cooking. It was a wild ride! We left Saturday afternoon(...yes, afternoon!) after we finally finished cleaning up our place(thank you, THANK YOU, Schmidts!), packing our two cars and finally getting to the store to buy snacks for our roadtrip. Planning a roadtrip at this point in our lives is simply going to be an afterthought. It's almost funny thinking about how much I stressed out about our road trip to California earlier over Christmas. This is our life now, people! :) Call it the new normal.

"Stoked" about her new carseat-thanks Hannah!

We rolled into Salina, KS the first night around 1am (ouch) after a few hours being stuck in a torrential down pour and INCREDIBLE lightening storm. It was a kindness and a grace from God to make sure both Tim and I each were DEFINITELY awake through the sleepiest part of the first days drive. No nodding off to that kind of insanity!

Truckin' along on the first day

The boys get settled in for the long haul

We awoke late and had a lazy start to the second day. Our goal; Dallas, TX. We made it to our dear friends, the Pitts, home around dinner time and had the pleasure of dining with Aaron as he played host since Lara and the kids were at Grandma's house. (We missed you, LARA!!!) At that point, we decided to give ourselves have a self-appointed Sabbath. We stayed at the Pitts the next day and let the boys play in the kiddie pool the whole day. It was just what we needed after weeks of having the kids live in chaos whilst we moved and packed. I think I finally started to let myself feel the weight of this kind of change in my life. It's nothing short of a trauma. A chosen trauma, albeit, but still, a trauma. I am missing home terribly. I keep reminding myself that this is something that we have been convinced we should/could do and have a peace about, but it doesn't make the human emotions any less raw and in-your-face. We are confident in where God has us merely if for the fact that we are having to CLING to Him for dear life!

Speaking of clinging for dear life...bike rack broke as soon as we put the bikes on...DUCT TAPE!!!

        Tuesday morning, we packed up and headed for Meridian, Mississippi. After crossing the Mississippi River, Wyatt exclaimed that it was his favorite! Ha! He loved how massive it was. THAT is a river folks. I couldn't help but think how much more fun it would be to float down the river on a raft Tom Sawyer style than to drive a van packed with screaming kids....but alas, I digress :)

At the Cracker Barrel!

Fitting right in with the Hill Billies :)

We had a cross cultural experience waking up in MS, eating breakfast at the hotel crammed full of a Black church group that was meeting there for the weekend. Grits, biscuits and gravy, and waffles were all served with pleasure by a super sweet grandma who treated everyone like her own grandchild. My only complaint was the Southern penchant towards powdered coffee creamer (blech-I'm a coffee snob, I admit.).
The drive through much of the south on toward my grandma's home was all under construction and through every tiny town you've never heard of. We probably averaged 40mph. Ugh.  Ashburn, GA (otherwise known as the model for the Andy Griffith Show's Mayberry) is home to my sweet Granny Maw. I was so glad to spend some time with her (and two of my uncles and cousin)and spend the night there before making the last leg of our journey to Orlando. She's one of the best ladies I know. We're not sure how much time we might get with her these days as her memory isn't what it used to be, but it is a privilege just to be with her. The night we got there, I think Tim ate about four plates full of roasted ham, butter beans, peas, creamed corn, and a jello mold with shredded carrots.  And she apologized for not making sweet tea and biscuits :) Ah, the south!

Swinging at Granny Maw's in the deep south

Me and Blanch Branch, aka best Granny Maw ever!

The last day was just a bite-the-bullet-and-get-thru-it type of day. I was in the van with the kids that day and the last hour of driving my baby girl started screaming just for fun. No kidding. She was just playing with the boys which resulted in an All Van Scream-a-thon. Felt good. :)

Well, this is getting longer than I hoped...which when you think about it, was the same way I felt about  our road trip.

Washing the dust off our feet...WE'RE HERE!!!

More later...if I can muster it in the midst of the chaos. :)
 Thanks for your prayers and messages and love. Hugs to you all!