Goodbyes are hard

Packing and saying goodbye:

If packing wasn't hard enough...

Levi bit a hole nearly through his lip on Friday (#overbiteproblems)

Savannah lost her first front tooth on Saturday

In the middle of the day Saturday I was standing on some stuff packing boxes in high and tight inside the POD and took a pretty bad fall.  Luckily nothing broke but I seriously injured my right shin to the point that now, as I write this post 2 weeks later, I can tell I have permanent nerve damage as parts of my leg are numb (and not the parts that got directly injured).

Our sweet friends the Rehards let us borrow a few of their kids to help watch ours and brought us dinner on Saturday.  Note to self: if someone is moving and you really want to help- bring them dinner! We were so overwelmed with everything food and feeding the kids just got neglected.  One of many families we shed tears over saying goodbye to. 

We packed and packed and I found the kids like this Friday night.  They had put themselves to bed and Charlotte figured out a way to put headphones into her TV so she could still watch and listen while the other kids were asleep. 

Nevertheless our tetris skills paid off and we got everything we wanted to pack into the POD except one bench- no joke, we packed the thing full to the top with 2 bunk beds, our queen bed, a coffee table, the kids dresser, all their toys, clothes, a garage full of Christmas boxes, books, movies etc etc.  I really didn't think we could do it. And the only thing we absolutely couldn't fit was this one last wooden bench.  There is some history with the silly bench so we brought it with us- for now.

The bench just wouldn't fit

We said goodbye to our stuff after 3 days of packing.  An odd feeling as we, as a family, have never done this before.

We also said goodbye to some dear friends- including our own Ms. Sharon.  For us- Ms Sharon has been a lifesave- she is loved by all and we will miss her dearly (already do- definitely).  She has been such an encouraging voice on this journey to the unknown, a faithful friend in prayer and probably understands the intense bi-polar emotions I have had related to this whole journey more than anyone else.  We hope to be blessed with a visit from her wherever we end up.

Savannah and Charlotte said goodbye to some friends they have literally known from birth.  I hate to pull them from "all they have ever known" (Savannahs heartbreaking words not mine)- but I pray they will thank me for it one day.  She is such a sentimental girl- even more than her mother- so I sympathize with her and am doing my best on our adventure to make it just that- an adventure that she enjoys. I have already found her once crying softly in her bunk missing "home"- if only she knew I was doing it too.  Love that kid!

Levi, Charlotte, Chloe, Savannah, Kallie, Dodge

And saying goodbye to our church.  I was born attending this church when it was called First Baptist Church of San Clemente.  When we returned as a fmaily in 1996 we sought out the church to find that it was renamed Pacific Coast Church and I have been attending ever since.  I had my first job working at this church.  It was in 1999 that I met Josh through this church and the "College and Career Group", it was the Pastor of this church that married us in 2002.  We saw the church grow and almost bulldoze and rebuild, then we saw the church split and then we witnessed Gods work in each part of that split for his glory.  We dedicated our kids here- and now here was our last attendance.  Savannah was in her class for the last time and the other kids came with us to the family/cry room and all sat together.  The history here is more than they can understand as I recall sitting in this room childless praying for children of my own- and there they sit- the motivation for this journey- the gifts that seem to have come all at once- as so we attended and left quietly and not many people really knew it was our goodbye.

And lastly the apartment.  Josh and I met on this street- Avenida Rosa- 16 years ago and probably past this apartment multiple times on our cheap dates walking to the pier.  Ironically after college we ended up on the same street - it was on the porch that I found out I was employed at Saddleback College as a Sign Language instructor.  We had 16 foster kids live with us in that apartment- 4 after Savannah and Charlotte were born.  I went into labor 4 times in that apartment.  It was where we started our family- and lost our family- and grew our family- and then outgrew the apartment.  As we were packing our last things I captured these memories that we couldn't bring with us- might not mean much to anyone but me but they pull at my heart. 

The height growth wall- I didn't mark on the home for years, but then one day I just decided we were staying there forever and so I might as well.  It had all the kids on it except Cheyenne and I copied it onto a board that I brought with us in the RV.

This is Grandma Melodi- so I have been told- Charlotte, years later, added her own scribbles and her name!

Savannah drew this on the wall when I was pregnant with Levi from the lower bunk of the bunk bed- I was so angry that she drew on the wall until she explained that it was our family- that is me with Levi in my belly, Josh and then her and Charlotte.  Her face beamed with pride that she was "decorating for the baby".  We discussed it and she never wrote on the wall again- but something kept me from magic erasing it and now there it is- a final portrait on the wall when all else has been removed and I left it.

The POD

Moving Day is here:

Its been a crazy month- bought a truck, gave a 30 day notice for our apartment (which they are now trying to rent for $2200- that is $650 more than we pay now- a 42% increase - crazy, bought an RV and we have been packing and purging daily.  The month overall has flown by but the last two weeks have seemed to drag with the constant worry about where to put the beast.  See we got this HUGE RV (32') which we attached with a hitch (3-4') to a large SUV (about 16') so we are practically a semi truck driving down the street and we show up in this little downtown neighborhood feeling like we brought a horse home as a family pet in a tiny apartment.  It took us 2 hours to figure out where to park the thing.  I am sensing a "rookie mistake" list again...

Rookie mistake #1: Actually thinking we would fit anywhere near our downtown home

Rookie mistake #2: Trailers dont have brakes- so we can't unhitch or the thing can just roll away- how did I not know this? Advice: Buy chocks and a hitch lock right away- or better yet, before you purchase a TT (travel trailer)

Rookie mistake #3: Not thinking about #1 or #2 on the 6 hour drive home

Rookie mistake #4: We are TALL and we didn't even know that SC isn't really conducive to something so tall.  Downtown has low hanging trees- and yes, our first parking attempt was met with some branches- but luckily Josh is quite good at maneuvering the beast and no damage was done

Rookie mistake #5: Not checking the weather...So remember those roof gashes and missing vents- no big deal if it doesn't rain and we are in a drought right so we are good for a few days until we can get it to the repair shop- but NOOO- it rains THE NEXT DAY- little "hurricane" type squall knocking down our deck furniture kind of rain.  We were warned that it might (thank you Sharon) and tarped it up before any further damage was done.  Josh brought it to someone the next day to repair the roof, awning and recaulk seal all the windows.  We still need to deal with the refrigerator and the fresh water tank though.

Rookie mistake #6: Assuming a "72 hours permit" to park an RV on the street was indeed 72 hours- well it is not- its 36 hours to load and 36 hours to unload.  Opps.  First time we parked it was for a good solid 2 days plus a bit- but no one said anything so we though we had done it right... that is until we got it back from the shop and parked it again thinking 72 hours means in-a-row... then we got a warning that we had to move it... but where to... we searched high and low, even had some friends offer us their empty spot- but it ended up being too small (darned beast)- luckily we did find somewhere for $10/night- its just a parking lot but that is all we needed.

Today is Fri 9/25 and its moving day- the POD has come and we are full force packing that thing.  Its 16' and we just don't know how we are going to make that work- time will tell.  I was super impressed with how the POD company works when it comes to how to deliver such a huge container.  You should watch a youtube video on it- its a pretty great contraption and doesn't take much time at all! 

For the record PODS wasn't our first choice as we were quoted some ridiculous amount around this time last year from them- we looked into Relocubes, U-Boxed and ATB but PODS won for these reasons:
1. We can store the unit (ATB you can not- you have to get your stuff out on a specific day)
2. Well built construction (u-hauls u-boxes are just plywood and tarps and we weren't confident that would be good for 3 months solid)
3.  Good square footage- we liked that we could just get one big unit instead of a bunch of smaller ones that might get separated from eachother.
4. Relocube was a high contender with well built units, ability to store and you can load as many cubes as you need and only pay for the ones you use- BUT they ended up being more expensive due to their high monthly storage fee
So PODS won.

We pack up Fri, Sat and Sun.  Monday we get our RV back on our street to finish packing that up (for 36 hours)- and then Oct 1st we begin our adventure.  First stop- San Diego/Temecula/Julian.  Yes we realize this is the wrong direction to get to our real first stop in Portland BUT we need to do our traditional Julian Apple picking, go to the Zoo one last time and look at Temecula thru the lense of "could we thrive here?"- so we are almost out but we aren't going to be too far right away.