The Move...

Getting settled in...Ella in Nana's backyard!

When I was in middle-school we had a Sunday school lesson about faith.  My teacher explained faith in a way I've never forgotten:

"Faith...Look at the chair you are sitting in.  Did you call the company who made it and ask the CEO to come down and prove to you that it would hold you up before you sat down?  No, you just sat in it (unless there was something obviously wrong with it) and had faith that it would hold you up.  You couldn't see the person who made it or run a test to determine how strong the steal was, but you took a leap of faith that it would be strong enough to hold your weight.  That's what your faith in God should be like.  He doesn't have to prove to you how He's going to make things happen because He's made the promise that he'll hold you up.  When you put your faith in God, like you did this chair, it allows your life to progress in accordance to the plan he made to "hold you up".  Faith isn't easy, but it's what we can count on to see us through-- and hold the weight of our burdens--just like the chair"

Since December when Brent made the decision to change jobs, we've had to rely on blind faith.  With no real plan, a year old baby, and another one on the way in July, things have been stressful and trying to say the least.  We found out in March that we would have to pay $4,600 to break our lease.  We found out mid-April that Brent's new job couldn't provide us health insurance until June-- Cobra costs $1,300 a month for a family.  I was in a car accident on the day we moved.  My car is still sitting in a body repair shop in Statesboro.  Thankfully, everyone was okay.  All these things seemed to be piling up telling us this wasn't going to be easy.  Were we missing something? We didn't think so...We had done a lot of praying and discussing throughout this decision and were confident that it was the right one-- but things weren't exactly falling into place.  With mounting concerns, the only thing left to do was to let Faith hold us up.  And then, something amazing happened...everything fell into place.

My car is repairable and no one was hurt in the accident.  The air bag never deployed and the front of the car didn't smash into my stomach (the collision was head-on) and I did't hit the steering wheel, so the baby was safe.  Sure it's inconvenient not to have a car for a while, but thus far Allstate insurance has been amazing.  And we are thankful we paid the extra money to have the "Accident Forgiveness" feature as part of our insurance plan.  Very grateful.

And Now for the good stuff...we got a call last Monday after I moved (Brent was still in Savannah for one more week) saying that Brent's job could begin on Monday and that they would pay the full cost of our COBRA insurance until the company insurance could pick us up June 1st.  A few hours later, we  received another call from the property management company we leased from saying that 4 students were going to sign a lease for our house and that we would be released from the lease without owing ANY money!! The owner of the company had been really difficult to deal with, but we are extremely grateful to her that she showed us such compassion in the end. These two things had been huge financial concerns and we were super excited to learn in the span of a couple of hours that nearly $6,000 would remain in our savings to be used towards the things we were actually saving for.  God is good!

As far as the move goes, everything went as smoothly as possible (until the wreck later that night).  We packed our house over the course of 3.5 months so everything was basically ready to go.  When the movers got there they were in shock that we had done so much on our own!  Savannah Movers are really awesome and they spent 5 hours loading all of our stuff between a POD and a Big Uhaul truck...and as far as I can tell, didn't get anything mixed up.  After a long day with the movers, we showered and began to make our way to Dublin to get Ella who had spent a fun filled week with Mimi and Papa. We decided to stop for dinner in Metter, Ga...remember the slogan... "Everything's better in Metter"...I'd beg to differ...that's where the wreck occurred.  I was pulling out of a restaurant/gas station area with a giant 18-wheeler obstructing my view.  I couldn't tell the road was 2 lanes, he was stopped trying to turn in where I was leaving, I thought he was waiting on me so I went after we both sat there for what seemed like forever.  Yeah...not a good thing.  The road was 2 lanes AND there was someone in the other lane and the front of my car hit the front side of her car.  Luckily nobody was seriously injured because it could have been extremely bad.  Brent was following me in the Uhaul truck so he wasn't in the car.  The EMT checked me out and the only thing I had was a small bump on my head and of course some tears.  I tried to stay calm for the baby's sake and, I have to say, I must have done a decent job because my blood pressure was 116/ 70.  Pretty low for just having a  scary wreck.  So anyway, we paid for the girl I hit's hotel room and had Julie and Eddie come get us.  Eddie came up with a new slogan for Metter on the way home..."The city, that's sh***y"...sometimes you just have to find humor in a bad situation.  Thanks again for picking us up!

 What a relief that everyone was okay and what a terrible ending to an already long day.  My car, which I love, was hauled off to some tow yard to be assessed by Allstate the following Monday.  After the inspection last Monday, they found no engine or structural damage to my car, and it will be repairable, so yay for that.  Seeing Ella that night really hit home for me.  What if the wreck had been really terrible and something bad had of happened and I missed the chance to see her grown up?  I was counting my blessings to be okay...not only okay, but basically uninjured and felt very lucky to be safe and with my family.  Brent found out later that week from some of his patients from Metter that that intersection is extremely dangerous and a wreck occurs there almost once a day.  They are trying to petition to get a stop light put in.  I hope they do, because it's a very tricky intersection and I imagine people have died or been seriously injured there.  That might explain why the cop we so nice and even made the point to tell me he "had" to give me the ticket since I had caused a wreck, but he was just glad that we were all okay.  I feel very fortunate.

So we spent the night in Dublin.  Baby moved and kicked all night and has been ever since, so we are really grateful she's okay!  The next morning we got up and headed to Roswell to move into my Mom's basement.  My awesome brother and his awesome friends, Drew and Zack, helped Brent clear out our Uhaul and move everything in.  They must be some strong guys because they had it done in less than an hour!  We still owe my brother and his friends dinner..they wouldn't let us pay them...isn't that so sweet?  Thanks again guys!  So, everything was in by Saturday despite the wreck.

 Brent headed back to Savannah on Sunday for his last week of work.  He only had an air mattress, clothes, towels, and cleaning supplies at the house.  He spent the week working and getting the house in tip-top shape for our check-out inspection.  Which apparently went really great...way to go Brent!  I spent the week setting up our new pad and I must say, we've really made it work.  There's quite a bit of space and we feel fortunate to have something temporary as we decide what exactly our "forever" plan is-- either buy a practice or open a brand new one.  Only time will tell!

Ella LOVES spending time with her Nana and Uncle Jason and it's been great to have help with her while we get settled in.  I think it will be a big adjustment, but we're grateful that everything worked out like it has.  Brent actually started working today in Dawsonville.  He called to say the commute wasn't so bad and that he didn't mind the drive thus far.  I hope he feels the same way headed home tonight!

I think the best part of being back in the Atlanta area is that we have so many people who we care about and have reached out to us!  It feels great to be home and to know so many people again.  Of course we want to make new friends too, but it feels so good to be able to meet up with people from the past and know that they already know you and love you just the same.  Ella has been invited to music on Thursday and to a really cool indoor playground on Friday, thanks to my friend from college, Freddie!  Freddie has two little ones and is really connected with all the stay at home mom stuff in the area.  I'm just so grateful that she's including us and showing us the ropes!

Lots more to blog about but I'll stop here.  I truly feel like this journey guided by faith is leading us exactly where se are suppose to be.  We're excited and relieved that the first leg is over with and are holding on for what is to come....but not without out FAITH to hold our weight!  Wonder if my Sunday school teacher realizes I never forgot that analogy??