sweet home alabama

well, our transition to our new home has not gone without hitches, but it has gone over with lots of love and providence from God. i am so thankful to Him for blessing us the way he does. we are in the midst of extreme change and in the midst of it we miss many and are beginning to love many. there almost aren't words for what we have gone through over the last few weeks, and i'm sure we will continue to go through more along the way. i thought that i would give you all an update. i'm sure it won't be thorough, but it will be a start.
it kinda starts about a week before the actual day of truck loading.

thursday april 17- bekah wakes in the wee hours of the morning throwing up. she continues to do so about seven times. we think she's over it but she does not actuall go a full day without throwing up until the next monday!! it is safe to say that she never want ANY flavor of gatorade again! i will aways remember how she would decline it be "no, dat make me tick." it probably saved her life and mine. that night, my middles school girls had planned a going away dinner for me in lue of their normal bible study. since bekah was so sick i could not go, however, my precious husband graciously met me and kept them in the van for about an hour so i could be there, since there was no time left to reschedule. this was so gracious becasue it was during his las vm rehearsal. i will always remember the kindness and sacrifice he showed me that night.

friday and saturday april 18-19-bret's final vm shows. the kids and i did end up going to see it friday night even though i was not sure at that time if bekah was better or not. he did great. makin waves (the original four) got to sing one last song together. it was really special. bret broke down nad cried during the last song of the last show. i knew he would. the vm were his brothers and friends. how fitting that they ended the show each night with a cheesey tune called Brotherhood. i know he will miss that more than most anything else! it was the place he escaped and let his hair hang down.

saturday night april 19- sunday april 20-micah, bret and i came down with bekah's vomiting virus. anna, tough as nails, was spared. this meant that the kids and i missed our next to last sunday with preston road and all the wonderful last meals planned for that day. bret managed to lead worship inbetween stomach episodes and came home to sleep for the rest of the day. we also had to cancel our last open house for the house because of the sickness and germs no one was well enough to disinfect. our small group had made all our favorite texsas food with fajitas, jims hotsauce and stacy's tres leches cake. we didn't get to enjoy any of it. i was up and able to go by that night and i began the last major stride in packing. because of showing the house, i had kept all decorations up so the house looked staged. sunday night it all came down.

monday april 20-i packed like crazy and we wnet to our dear friends house out in the country for tacos and smores over a bon fire. it was nice. they are so special to us.

tuesday april 21-again i pack like crazy and we meet a dear friend for dinner in dallas. we were left to reschedule all the weekend meals for each night of our last week.

this proved to be difficult because that meant that i would have to pack alone monday through friday morning, because bret worked in the day and met us for dinner each night. we rarely made it home in time to do much packing at night because we were so worn out and still recooperating form being sick the weekend beofre. it was also very hard to eat so much when we were just coming off of a stomach bug. but we made it and were reminded of all the special people in our lives.

wednesday april 22-anna's special get together with her class at the ark. they invited her to come back to play with them during their centers and outside playtime. we were able to pick up her end of the year scrpabook the teachersmake for everyone and it was very special.
that night was our final praiseteam rehearsal at the highly acclaimed wiggins abode and kitchen. deborah made our favorite prok tenderloin, cheesy potatoes and salad (complete with hearts of palm!!). the desserts were insane! almost everyone was able to be there and it probably goes without saying that it was an emtional night. they presented us with gifts and then...we cam home. they are amazing singers and have learned so musch and taught us so much. i'm sure we will never find any other group just like them.

thursday april 23-was my parents anniversary, and i never even realized that until just now as i am typing....wow....that makes the sacrifice they made even more special....but i will get to that in a minute. for now, thursday...i packed like crazy having, at this point, everything we own either in a box or out in the middle of the floor. that's when the real estate office calls and someone want to come look at our house in thirty minutes. i stressed the fact that we were loading hte moving truck in aobut 36 hours but i managed to clear a path and get out in time. though stressful, it did provide the kids and i a much needed break to stip by sonic happy hour and visit our favorite playground one last time. and to top it all off, our favorite playmates were there when we arrived! when we returned home, i got a call as i was walking in the door that the people had not actually made it by our house yet, this comes as i answer the doorbell and there they stand. so the kids and i go for a walk and play for a few minutes at our neighborhood swings until we see them leave. we rush back and shower so we can get to dinner with our small group in dallas at the el fenix downtown dallas. it was nice, but hectic to say the least. after dinner, the kids an igo to the church and help bret up the van and car with all his boxes of books and such from his office. of coourse...he pulled a muscle in his back that would be the thorn in his side for the next few days. by ten, we get home.

friday april 24-we packed like maniacs until lunch that was scheduled with an elder and his wife. we were very touched at their desire to get together with us before we left, that we felt it inportant to try and make it work. they did come out to rockwall and treated us to our favorite restaurant, on the border. after lunch, we made a home depot run to pick up rope and some other thngs we would need to load the truck and leave the house in good shape. i stopped to pick up micah's withdrawal papers and the secretary made me cry. that school has been so good to us and such a source of blessing. i picked up micah jsut before the bell rang since it was raining and i didn't want him to walk home in the rain. i was able to get a few pics ofhimwith his teacher and his close buddies. he almost tunes up as we walked out with all his class mates yelling through the closing door good byes and miss you's. he held it together better than me. we got home and he wanted to read me the book his class had made for him. they were numerous letters of bye micah, i'll miss you, i hope you enjoy your new school thoughts. being the super speller he is, he also got a little tickled at some of the misspellings in some of the notes. however, it was the very well stated letter form one of his best buddies that made him break down. it read, "dear micah, thanks for being my friend. hope you make good friends hope you like alabama.i hope you have fun at your new school.go make a new cheetah team people (this is what he and his friends refered to themselves as on the playground). i liked it when you were here and so did jack (his other best friend)." the things inside the parentheses i interjected,
of course, but at the bottom, he drew a picture of all the boys in the cheetah team. micah cried and cried. so did i, but not with tears, yet.

ok, i know thats more than you really had time to read and i need to stopmand get ashower for the day...so this will be part one of a to be continued series..
love you all,
s