We are home!

I'm sorry that it has taken a week to make another post. This has been a very busy week of last minute packing, hiring movers, loading the truck, cleaning the house, saying goodbye to friends, and driving to Texas. Andy drove the 26 foot moving truck which topped out at 65-70 mph. Larry rode the in the cab with Andy in his special seat belt. The little dogs rode with me in the car containing some necessities and the computer.

We were late leaving town on Tuesday and got caught in some horrible weather including a hail storm. So, we didn't even make it out of Florida that day before we pulled over and spent the night. The next day we made it to New Orleans and spent the night. We were hoping to make it to San Antonio on Thursday, but once again the weather made us run late. So, we spent the night in Beaumont. We finally made it to our new home on Friday afternoon after driving through thunderstorms for hours. A one night trip turned into a three night trip.

The new church pastor and his wife met us at the house with drinks and a visit. Mom arrived shortly with our new (old) mattresses. We inherited Mom and Dad's mattress set as they bought a new set this year. Then the troops arrived, five youth and countless parents, SPR committee members and new friends. The moving truck was unloaded in less than an hour. Praise God! Our beds were put together and most of the boxes made it to the right rooms (as room allowed). What a blessing. We received the first fruits of an old fashioned "pounding" (a pound of this and a pound of that) and dinner/breakfast. In fact we will have dinner delivered for the next four nights. Tonight we happily ate some wonderful King Ranch Chicken, salad, bread and lemon bars!

Basically, we are happier than we imagined. Our landlords are lovely Christian people, Granny is close by, our new church seems full of friendly and hopeful people, and best of all our baby should be home in less than three weeks.

We have talked to our birth mother since arriving and she is doing well. Her mother has already picked up her little boy to keep him until after the birth. This will give her some space to rest and just work as much as she can until the birth. He was sick this past week and undoubtedly needs some time to rest too. But our birth mother's spirits seem high and she is still very open and friendly. We did not get to do the shopping we planned to do last week and are hoping to get that done this week. She mentioned us going to her last doctor appointment this week, but our home study update will be done that day (Tuesday). Pray for us as we try to make the house as presentable as possible before Tuesday. Our adoption counselor says she doesn't expect us to be unpacked, but we'll give it a good try.

Granny took some pictures and as soon as we get those we will post them so you can all see our new house and some of our new friends. May God bless you all--wherever you are. We miss you all and love you all very much!