The Day Has Finally Come

After a whirlwind few days of cleaning, sprucing up the house, packing up toys, showings (and the frustration from no shows multiple times for those showings), our final days were here. Nic’s parents came on Sunday to get the older 2 for a couple days while the movers were packing us up. Mr. Green still struggled at night time so we figured we would at least keep him with us so they didn’t have to deal with that. That morning we had our last morning at church; I sang with worship group for the last time, and we gave hugs and said our goodbyes to those who have supported us so well the past few years. Back at the house while we waited for the grandparents to get there we had the boys say goodbye to the house, the neighborhood, and our friends in the neighborhood - and then they were off. Not only did Mr. Blue get emotional after saying goodbye to his friends and the house, but watching him struggle with these emotions really got to me. I think he struggled with the fact that he was really excited to be closer to grandparents and be on land that he can explore, but was also really sad to be leaving friends, the house and neighborhood, and basically everything he’s known for the past 4 years. That can be hard as an adult to come to terms with, so as a 7 year old who already feels things so deeply, it was astronomical for him. The next couple days were a blur, with a lot of emotional highs and lows. I was either seeing friends for the last time while keeping Mr. Green occupied or cleaning behind the movers as they were packing up each room. On Monday the movers packed the rooms, and on Tuesday they wrapped what needed wrapped and then loaded up the trailers, and yes trailerS plural 🙈. Monday night we enjoyed dinner sitting on the floor with takeout on paper plates and the movers were kind enough to leave out a couple mattresses so we had something to sleep on. Oh the things you do when your entire existence is packed up. Tuesday I took Mr. Green to the park to keep him out of the way of the movers and also to meet up with some friends one last time (we strategically did not say goodbye, because it’s not, we still planned to get together when we can). Once the movers were done we did our last sweep of cleaning and loaded up our cars with the things we were transporting and we began the trek to Nic’s parents. Once there, we quickly loaded up the boys and headed over to the new house to do our final walk through. We were slated to sign the papers in the morning for the new house! 

The past couple days had been very stressful for Nic and I as there was a concern we weren’t going to be able to take possession of the house on time. There were some legal things on the seller’s end that were taking longer than they should’ve and there were a lot of moving parts that needed to align for us or we were going to have a big headache and yet another big chunk of change spent. Needless to say, we were extremely frustrated. The moving company had the crew and the availability to bring our stuff and unload on Wednesday, but if we weren’t able to take possession on time they didn’t have availability until Friday. So not only would we be displaced for longer, but we would also have to pay for 2 extra days of storage for 2 trucks AND have a higher cost for them moving our stuff on a ‘peak’ day. The boys were more than ready for some normalcy again, they wanted their things, we also were ready to begin settling in, and we definitely didn’t want to have to pay more money for an issue we had no control over. The moving company needed to know by 9am the next morning if they should head our direction, so we went to bed praying everything would work out. We gave it to God and just prayed his hands would be all over this for us. 

The next morning we just prayed everything was going to align and told the movers to head our way. In true God fashion, the movers ended up having a small job to do that morning and then would head our way - so that gave us a little more wiggle room time wise. Thankfully our mortgage loan officer was the most incredible human being and put pressure where it was needed to get everything done and we were only set back a few hours. We met with the notary at a local coffee house and experienced another God wink - they put Bible verses on each cup. On my cup was Psalm 51:10 - ‘God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me’, on Nic’s was 1 Peter 3:18 - ‘For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.’ Message received God, thank you. So we signed the papers, headed to the house, and waited on the movers. Once we got inside we breathed a huge sigh of relief, the stressful part was over, now it was time to settle in and begin our new chapter. We didn’t have to wait long for the movers, they showed up about 20 minutes after we got into the house. They came in and we walked them through and gave them the lay of the land and where certain things would go and then they were off. I claimed throne in the living room and basically directed traffic of where everything should be taken. They were an incredible team and made quick work of getting the trucks unloaded. We made the decision to keep the boys at Nic’s parents most of the day so they weren’t in the way of the movers and we didn’t have to worry about where they were, but once the movers were almost finished they came over and were so excited to see their things be in the house. They all claimed their bedrooms and headed outside to play and explore. This was what we had dreamed of. That night we went back to Nic’s parents to sleep because I wasn’t going to be able to get everyone’s beds set up and ready in time or find everything needed to set them up, we didn’t really even have plates or food for breakfast the next morning - it had been a long day and I wanted to just crash. I’m also the type of person that even if I had gotten our beds to a sleeping ready state, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep knowing the whole house was an absolute disaster and full of boxes that needed unpacked. So it was for the best that we didn’t try to stay that night. 

(it’s so silly, but this is my absolute favorite thing in the new house! Who knew a lift out for a mixer could cause so much joy!)

The next few days were full of cleaning, unpacking, organizing, and settling in. My in laws and the boys got to work on the outside, while Nic and I were busy inside getting things put away. They cleared away brush that needed trimmed or cut down and just cleaned it up a bit so the boys had some good play areas. It was a full and busy weekend, but we accomplished a lot and were so thankful for family and the help they gave us. In the following months I still was very busy deep cleaning the house and making it feel more like our home, homeschooling the boys, driving back to Des Moines for baby appointments, and setting up play dates to start meeting people. I told the boys even before we moved that I was going to be intentional about finding opportunities to meet people to make new friends and I held strong to that - I wasn’t going to let them down. Right away we got connected with a weekly moms group at the church Nic and I used to go to in college that filled my need for adult interaction and the kids got to play with a bunch of other kids. We also joined a homeschool group that meets every other week. And we met up with a few different groups of people at parks or libraries to start establishing some relationships. God really answered my prayers here. There were so many opportunities for meeting people and the homeschool community around here is so good and honestly very large compared to what we came from. Those were two of my biggest concerns when moving and I can see his hand in so many instances. The boys still missed their friends and we had some really hard days of them (and honestly me too) wanting to be around people who just knew us, but we talked about how relationships take time to build and work from both sides that we just need to keep at it and eventually those bonds will form. But to be totally honest, I felt like a hypocrite saying that to them when my heart was having just as hard of a time with it all. I am so thankful for connecting with people as quickly as we did and how welcoming and kind everyone was - but I also just missed people who really knew me, our story, our struggles, and who I could 100% let my guard down with. And explaining Mr. Blue to every single new person or group we met was wearing me down and just made me want to hole in at home forever. But I had promised the boys we would meet and make new friends, so we kept at it, no matter how hard it was. Each new chapter in life comes with growing pains, but this was one that while it was a great change and move for us in many aspects, the hard parts were glaringly so.

xoxo, mischief managing momma.

Oldest (1)- Mr. Blue

Middle (2) - Mr. Orange

Youngest (3) - Mr. Green