Austin in the Rearview Mirror

We did it! We are now in Ft. Worth, Texas. Actually, we moved here on Saturday but it took until now (Monday night) to open enough boxes to find the things I needed and make space to set up the Internet. I know, I know, most people in this day and age would have set it up first but, believe me, there was not room enough to sit down unless you wanted to sit on a box. Let me catch you up on how the move went. However, I will spoil the surprise by telling you that God is wonderful and he really blessed us.

U-HAUL
I reserved a 17-foot U-Haul truck for our move on Saturday but due to some sort of mix up we ended up getting a 24-foot truck, which is really huge! The funny thing is that Karen had to drive it to our house in Round Rock and she was nervous and going 10 mph. When I saw the truck I thought it was way bigger than we needed to move all our stuff, but at least we would have plenty of room.

I jumped in the truck that night and tried to back it into our driveway so that we could easily load things from the garage the next morning. Several things went wrong. First, I had to circle the block a few times to get the angle right. Then, when I got the angle right, I couldn't back into the driveway without tearing up the concrete. The back of the truck was so long it couldn't go up the gentle slope of my driveway. As I was driving around the block I kept hitting tree branches that hung into the road and rolled over a curb when I didn't take a wide enough turn. This thing really was a beast! And I had to drive it 200 miles the next day. But God relieved me because my Mom happened to be staying with us so that she could help us move. For those of you who don't know, my Mom is a retired teacher who also happens to be an active bus-driver. In fact, she's been driving buses almost as long as I've been alive. So I let her drive the U-haul the next day and she was happy and I was happy. Karen was also happy that I wouldn't be using the insurance on the truck.

MOVING
Saturday morning arrived and some friends that I had worked with and some friends from church arrived at my house. All of them were strong men. And it turns out that we needed every foot of that huge truck to move our stuff--I'm so glad we got a bigger truck--but where in the world did we get all that stuff? Halfway through loading the truck David, one of the guys helping me, says, "Do you have anybody to help you move on the other end in Ft. Worth?" I tell him that maybe one other person or a neighbor might help. Then he tells me that he and his family are thinking about taking a spontaneous trip to Ft. Worth, and that he can help me unload. I was really taken aback by his generosity. However, it was a win-win situation though because David's brother lives in the same building we were moving to and David had been planning to visit him soon. So of course I thanked David and told him I would like his help.

ARRIVING
After we loaded up the truck, Mom, Karen and I cleaned up the house and locked it up. David and his family drove ahead to Fort Worth to visit his brother. I locked the front door for the final time and we left in a caravan made up of the U-Haul, my mom's car, and our Toyota Corolla driven by Karen and carrying the precious cargo of our 15 month old daughter. The drive to Ft Worth was smooth. When we got close there were storm clouds and rain seemed imminent. However, it never rained that night. The storm clouds only shielded us from the blazing sun while we moved.

When I drove up to our new apartment I saw David and his brother outside. They had also also recruited neighbors to help us move in. Not only did they help us move in but they asked that they move the stuff while we direct where it goes. You're probably thinking that this story doesn't get any better. WRONG! I was starving after a long tiring day, but before I said anything, Daniel, David's brother announces that he's ordering pizza for everyone. We ended up having an impromptu party at his apartment. Some old friends we knew even came over to join us. Not only would they let us not pay our share of the pizza but at the end of the night they insisted that we take some extra pizza home. To say the least, I was blown away--blown away by the generosity of friends but mostly blown away by the goodness of God.

If you would have asked me how I thought our move would have went I would have predicted something pretty dismal, even though I prayed that it would go well (and so did others for us.) This shows me how much I need to grow in my trust in God. He is awesome!