Here are the two things I would add to my list of things I miss about France:
1 - I miss the toilets that flush really, really well. Enough said. Why are American toilet flushes so very weak?
2 - I loved how everything is closed on Sundays in France.
It seems a bit hypocritical to say this since I was at a store buying stuff this past Sunday, but still, I really prefer the system on Sunday there. We just knew to plan ahead because there was no way to shop on Sundays. One or two grocery stores were open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., but otherwise the whole commercial system was SHUT DOWN on Sundays.
Therefore, Sundays were a day spent doing other things. Spending time with people. Getting out to enjoy the parks. Or, just resting. I really liked that.
Just think how different life would be if we just unplugged from commercialism and electronics one entire day a week, every week. Doesn't that just sound healthy?
But, I had more in mind for this blog.
For instance, showing the most marvelous of sites -- our EMPTY suitcases! See!!!
What a marvel! After 3.5 months, we finally unpacked for good! Yeah!
But, I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit.
Before unpacking our suitcases we...
-we flew from Paris to Minnesota on March 11th
-we stayed with Mark's parent's for 4 days
-we moved over to Mark's sister's home for 10 days
-we moved back to Mark's parent's home for the next 3 weeks or so
-we moved our shipment from France from the container it was shipped in to a Budget truck
-we added stuff from storage to the Budget truck
-we drove all of our stuff down to Indiana
-we unloaded the Budget truck into this rental home...
.... that had a habit of growing a weed in the door jam between the kitchen and the laundry room
-we then spent a weekend looking for a house in Marion (and found one!)
-we drove to Iowa to my parent's home where Mark picked up their car and drove it back to Indiana
-then Mark started his new job May 1st and stayed in the rental home, surrounded by mountains of boxes
-the kids and I stayed for 2.5 weeks with friends in Maplewood
-we met as a family in Chicago for a weekend in May (a weekend that went by way too quickly!)
-Mark went back to the rental home in Indiana and the kids and I spent 2 more weeks staying with friends in Pine Springs
-on June 4th the kids and I drove to Indiana to be with Mark - YEAH!!!!! Oh, happy day!!!
-we spent two more weeks in the house that has the habit of growing a weed in the door jam (see it again? Todd pulled the weed because he couldn't stand it being there, but it came back again!)
- we closed on our new house on June 8h
- we got the keys to our new house on June 15th
- we cleaned the new house and moved all the kitchen boxes to the new house
-AND, we moved all of my Mom's paintings into the new house!!!!! See...proof:
-on June 18th we loaded up all the stuff from the rental home, and moved it into the new home. (We hired a '2 guys and a truck' outfit to move us, and it was well worth every penny!)
-We're finally home!!!!!! On June 18th, we emptied all of our suitcases and quickly put them into storage. Ahhhhhh.....what a fabulous feeling that was!!!!!
I have to confess two things.
One, every time I looked at the rental home, I couldn't help but think of every child's first drawing of a house. Doesn't it just look like the typical child's drawing? Door in the center. Two windows on either side. Steeped roof. Sidewalk up to the front door.
Even though the house looks tiny, it was actually bigger than you think. It was long and narrow. There were 3 bedrooms and a big kitchen and two rooms that seemed like they could be dining rooms spaces. It was such a provision of the Lord to have that house to rent for 2 months. Even though we were thrilled to leave it, we were very thankful for the purpose it served in our lives. And, we got to meet some really nice neighbors living there.
My second confession is that I have to admit that I have fantasized about burning my toiletry bag. Really. My toiletry bag is nothing special, and I thought about how much fun it would be to symbolically just torch the thing. But, I didn't. And, I probably won't. But, I can guarantee you that toiletry bag will be getting a good scrubbing before it gets used again!
So pretty much since June 18th, we've been holed up in our house getting settled.
When you ship stuff overseas, they usually deliver it to your new address and unpack it for you. Part of unpacking is taking all of the packaging 'stuff' away with them. There's a good reason for that. They are required to wrap EVERYTHING in 7-ply packing paper to ship internationally.
But, because we didn't have the movers deliver our stuff into our new home, we didn't get this service...
...which was a bummer.
As you can see from the photos below, our pile of 'packaging stuff' got pretty big!
And, our new house was being rented, so when the renters moved out, they were kind enough to leave even more of their empty boxes for us to deal with too!
We hired the '2 guys and a truck' outfit to come and take our packaging stuff away. It was a great relief to see it all GO and get our living room back!
We have been in the house for a little over 2 weeks, and it is feeling a lot like home now.
We cannot express enough how thankful we are for this house! We just love it! And, we all know that it is a tremendous gift from the Lord.
Here are a few photos.
The front:
Todd in the front door:
The side patio, which needs lots and lots of landscaping work. We'll get to it one day:
The play-set that was left in the back yard. The kids are loving this!
The side view that shows the wrap-around porch. We are looking forward to enjoying this porch for years to come.
It's just hard to believe this is home. But, it is sinking in more and more each day that we live here. And, we are so happy to finally be home.
Home.
Home in America once again.
With those words, I must close this blog. It's time to end this chapter of our lives. We'll print the Go Fish France blog into a book and start another blog.
As we look back on it all, we can honestly say, it was all worth it. Even with all the trials and supposed sacrifices, we'd do it all again. The joys, the things we learned, the way we grew as people and as a family, the experiences we had, the people we got to meet along the way -- it was all totally worth it! But, then, following the Lord ALWAYS is!
I thank you all for coming along with us. It's been a joy to have you along for the ride.
My last post (honest!) is going to be the address of our new blog. If you'd like to join us in Indiana, you are most welcome.
Au revoir!
No comments:
Post a Comment