Texas and the Big Move

Miss ME and I got to take a little jaunt out west from Saturday to Monday. On my way out of TX, I stopped to browse the ever-pompous and delightful t-shirt selection at the airport. This was my favorite.

Given that Baby is such a smiling, uncomplicated little thing, I wasn't anxious about traveling with her, but you never know. I prayed she'd do well, and hoped the air travel wouldn't hurt her ears.

This was her state in the airport before we boarded to go to Texas:

Once on the plane, she mostly relaxed in my lap....

I mean, she really relaxed. Slept most of the 2 hour flight, and I got to read! What a treat!

God graced us with such strong and beautiful relationships during our nine years in Texas. We traveled there last weekend to attend a wedding. Our dear friends' daughter was married on Sunday, on her parents' and grand parents' anniversary.

There are five kids in their family, three of whom are girls (young ladies now, women, actually), all of whom babysat our children many times.

The happy bride and groom planned a beautiful, simple ceremony and celebration. The weather was horrible, awful, wet, and thunderous the morning of the festivities, but God in His tender mercy allowed it to all clear off before the evening wedding. I always get emotional at weddings, because I'm transported back to my own big day, and am reminded of the blessedness of marriage.

I got to see many precious friends while away. The time there was bittersweet. So much for which to give thanks to God, and still sad over the loss of regular in-person contact with our Texas people.

Driving around and not being or feeling lost was a treat, too, I have to say. I have not figured our new area out yet, when it comes to navigating and all that.

As we headed back east from Texas, Baby once again confirmed her easy going status by napping twice on the flight home. She proved to be quite the charmer, striking up sweet little baby talk conversations with lots of people, all of whom seemed more than glad to chat it up with my little baby doll.

So we made it home safely. Thanks be to God. What an honor and blessing to get to make the trip and to connect with others...

And now, it's back to life here. This is a big part of what we did this week:

It's been all about final packing, organizing, cleaning at the new house, making small move-in improvements there, while trying to maintain a bit of normalcy here at the old house - naps and playtime and books read to little ones. On that note, a funny quote, and a testament to my amazing big kids, who are so kind to read to the little ones a lot: today, MK offered to read to the younger set. CJ came to her, semi-whining and asked, Do I have to listen to Hamlet again?! It's not really what I expect to hear my four year old saying, but how fun is that, that she even knows what Hamlet is, and that it's because her big sister reads to her so much (that one is from a children's version of Shakespeare's works). This is all extra-special to me because I do not love reading aloud to the kids.

So tomorrow and the next day are IT: the big move! I'll be honest - I feel completely overwhelmed by it at the moment! But we've been provided a home by our God and He's not overwhelmed at all...