We moved all of our belongings into the 26 foot truck on September 1st, 2009. We would have started the night before, but the place that had the only truck that would be available did not have it till Monday. Our plans to get the new couch that our wonderful church buddies gave us were put on hold till we got the truck. Thankfully, the couch was in their garage already and they didn’t mind waiting.

Three people came to help us pack & move, one of them was a teen from our church who VOLUNTEERED to help us. Let this be a testament to any teens who may read this, that boy WORKED his tail off to help out of his own free will. He didn’t expect us to give him money, he just felt the need to serve in love. Even with stitches in his knee, he worked tirelessly, only taking a 5 minute break because his knee was hurting. He even ate his pizza with one hand and moved things with the other! He was a God sent blessing, for sure! He even stuck around and helped move the couch into the truck, then he WALKED home (it was right around the corner, but still). He worked ALL day with us from the early morning to the early evening. He is golden forever to me and he is now always on my heart.

Blessings:

• Instead of 50 extra miles, the truck place gave us 100.
• Micheal from church. Thank You Jesus for him.
• Time to rest and enjoy fellowship with our buddy Carol before we headed back to finish packing.

Funny antics:
Tuesday was sweeper day and we were leaving that morning, but the 26 foot truck couldnt be on the street, so we moved it to the back and it got stuck on one side in a foot of mud. We had to call the tow truck to get it out!

We finally got ourselves on the road Tuesday afternoon, after the truck had been pulled out of the mud. By the time we had finished packing the night before, it was way too late to go anywhere. We were exhausted. So, we headed out Tuesday afternoon with every intention of getting to our storage place and unpacking the entire truck. Please tell me why when I called to find out if they would hold the door for us for a few more minutes till we got there that no one answered the phone? No one called us back? AND I called well within business hours.

By the time we got there, they had been closed for an hour. Being as we are from Jersey, we thought that their facility was like the ones you see down here, where you get into the gate and have 24 hr access to your stuff. Not so! This place was a total lockdown, so you can’t get in unless it is between the hours they have posted. Joy! We had to find a hotel room and stay the night. Thankfully, there was a reasonable place down the street that also had a back parking lot to accommodate large trucks. We finally got to rest about 11pm that night.

Blessings:

• The place was only 65 for the night and had two beds.
• Their shower was clean and the beds comfortable.
• There was a place to park the truck.
• I drove in New York and did not die.

Funny antics:
1.The man told us to come at 9:30 and he would have a room ready, but then it became 10pm and then 10:30. We finally got into our room at 10:40pm.
2.The tv turns on and the first thing you see is PORN! My husband had to try and hurriedly change the channel while I shielded our son from the debauchery. When he couldn’t find out why the channel would not change, I had to take our son in the bathroom till it was safe. He finally saw that the channel was one that was NOT on the satellite and something that the hotel controlled themselves, so he was able to get everything situated after that.

So, we woke up early as we could muster on Wednesday and got ourselves out the door for a long hard day of unpacking. We arrived at the storage place around 10:30am and started unpacking around 11. We worked all day till 6:30, when they pretty much kicked us out. Another night, another hotel room. This time we went a bit more pricey because there was no way we were going to wait from 7pm till 10pm for a room. We got to rest up over there for a while and enjoy some even more comfortable beds.

Blessings:

• The room was cozy, even if it was under some very serious renovation.

• We got in quickly because there was no wait for two beds.
• We were able to relax as a family.

Funny antics:
Yet again, the first channel to pop up was porn, but this time it was included in the channel set. What did that mean? We had to figure out all the porn channels so we could skip over them instead of just channel surfing like we would normally. Who knew there was so much free porn in the hotels of NY?

Thursday morning, another day and more unpacking. Now, we had to use our second storage which the husband so wisely secured the day before so we would not have to wait around for them to open and unlock our facility. We were able to unload everything into the parking lot so he could return the truck. It was just a matter of hours before we were finally finished putting it all in storage so we could head over to our new temporary home in Queens.

Blessings:

• We only spent 75 dollars in gas for the truck.

• We did not go over our miles because they were so generous in giving us more.
• We did not end up paying for the extra day which would have been 40 more dollars, even though we did have it another day.

We drove over to Queens and waited in our truck for his godfather to return. We ended up having to go up and wait for him inside instead, while keeping a seriously watchful eye out the window lest someone steal all our belongings. Thankfully, no one did and we had a great time getting acquainted with his godfather’s family. We spent our first night up there with them. The next day, they fixed around the bedroom where we will be spending the next month or so while they finish the apartment in the Bronx.

So ends this first leg of our journey to our destiny. (SEE OUR STORY IN PICTURES HERE)