Memorable moments from our trip to Texas

Last Monday we put all of our earthly possessions on a giant truck and left for Texas. This post is some of the highlights and a couple of lowlights from our trip. The first highlight had to be when the trucking company called and said that our driver could load our truck 5 hours before schedule. We were unsure if we would be able to leave Monday night as expected but with James' early arrival we even had time to have a nice dinner with Ryan Callahan later that night. The packing process was very interesting to watch and I do mean watch...Gavin and I didn't have to lift a finger (another definate highlight). Jane Case stopped by with some delicious cookies for us to take on our trip. The funny thing was that she brought them in a box and later that day we didn't have a place to store Gavin's diabetic supplies. Yep, that's right... they were kept right next to the cookies in the box. I guess that fits. We were also blessed to have several people close to us stop by to say farewell. We will truly miss all of our friends in (and around) Chittenango.

On Tuesday we woke up and had breakfast with Gavin's dad and stepbrother before heading to North Carolina. The trip was long and boring (10 hours in the car) but the kids were extremely well behaved! The most notable moment was when we got back in the car after dinner (around the 8th hour) and Samuel said "What the heck with all the drivin' to Mimi's?" We laughed so hard that Samuel's new favorite phrase is "What the heck with..." We arrived at Gavin's Mom's and Stepdad's around 8 that night and had some of the best sleep of our lives! Gavin and I stayed in NC on Wednesday and Thursday to rest and relax. Rest and relax we did except when Gavin's mom backed her BMW SUV into our nonmoving CRV. She pushed the headlight into the side panel and bent it...all in all it was about $2000 worth of damage. I find the whole thing somewhat comical.

On Friday, Gavin and I woke up and hit the road again. This time without the kiddos. Mimi and BigDaddy would fly them to Texas later. As good as they were the first leg of the trip I don't know if they would have made the next 16 hours. We drove 10 hours through Atlanta, Montgomery, Mobile, and then to Gulfport Mississippi. During the drive we got a call that our moving truck that wasn't set to arrive in TX until somewhere between Monday and Wednesday was coming on Saturday. We said we wouldn't be there until Sunday after church but we were thrilled our stuff would be there before our kids got there. We had a good meal that evening and enjoyed watching gas prices continue to drop as we drove south. The only negative was our hotel room in Gulfport was smoking and it reaked. All of our clothes stunk and I slept with a sheet covering my nose.

Saturday was our final travel day! We drove through Louisanna and half of it seemed to be one continuous bridge. Gavin kept hoping he would see a 'gator. No 'gators though...not that close to the highway. During our drive Gavin made a phone call to a friend in Texas that we met during the interview process. This friend had mentioned to us that he might want to sell his "tall man's Camry" in the near future. It's a "tall man's Camry" because the automatic seat is broken in the farthest back position. We were interested in buying it for Gavin since he sold his car while back in NY. We had asked this friend a while back if he wanted to sell it to us but we hadn't heard anything yet. We called to say not to worry about it because we didn't want to force him to get rid of his car if he wasn't ready. Well the reason we hadn't heard anything is because he wanted to surprise us by donating it to the church, to donate it to us FREE OF CHARGE. So Gavin is sporting a 1999 Toyota Camry around town. We are so thankful to our friends and GOD'S FAITHFULNESS! After that, we ate lunch at an awesome cajun whole-in-the-wall place in Lake Charles, LA. It was delicous! Around 3 that afternoon we strolled into Houston and my sister's house.

Sunday morning we went to our new church and were welcomed by so many familiar faces from our two prior trips here. We enjoyed an amazing time of worship and a fantastic sermon about Job (complete with a vase being broken on the floor). After church we got the keys to the tall man's Camry, picked up some Subway, and spent the rest of the day watching all our earthly possession come off a truck. Our rental house is amazing. Much more than we could have hoped for. We are saving so much and living very comfortably. On Monday our landlord's wife even brought us over dinner followed by our neighbor bringing over a pie the next day. Avery and Samuel flew in on Tuesday with Gavin's mom and stepdad and love their new home. My family came over on Wednesday and my aunt brought over gifts for me and the kids and dinner for all 15 of us! Southern hospitality at its best.

I know this was a long post and I don't think I even mentioned everything but I'm sure you get the idea. God has truly blessed us with safe travel (only one minor fender bender when we weren't even in the car) and many unexpected blessings! Thanks to all of you who have prayed us through this process and transition!