The Big Day

So tomorrow's the big day. And I'm sitting here blogging at lunch, 'cause I'm getting kind of nervous and this (and prayer) is keeping me from panic. The big day = moving for those of you who haven't heard. For those of you who know me well you'll either be saying, "Whoa, big surprise," in a sarcastic tone or perhaps, "Not again!"

I've actually lost count of the number of times I've moved since coming to Rockford. Let's see if I can remember...

First I lived with Pastor and Mrs. Martin when I first came to town, and all my stuff sat on the stage at the school for months. Then (2) I moved into my very own apartment at Clayton Court in Winnebago. What fun we had there! Sometimes, I had "traveling through" roommates such as Anouk or Joy. I loved having the space to be hospitable. I lived at Clayton Court for two years. Then came the chaos of a church split. I resigned from my job. Really, I had no idea what would come next so (3) I packed up all of my stuff and put it into a storage building and went back to Tennessee for a few months to think. And ended up right back here in Rockford (4), living with the Goodwins. Do I have to count moving just the stuff? Because we had that tornado destroy the storage building where my stuff was stored, and the emergency move (5) to the Aschers' barn. Next, both the stuff and I moved in with Joy (6) in the basement of the big house on National Avenue. You remember, the big house that was sold just a few months after we moved in. The original owners told the new owners that we would be moving out and told us that the new owners wanted us to stay. When the confusion cleared, we were moving out on a snowy night in January. We moved to the wonderful Franklin Place apartment (7) where we lived for around a year and a half, I think. Then I moved in with Mel at the apartment out in Loves Park (8), but after a couple of months we found the nice little apartment where we've lived for the last year (9). This September we re-signed our lease, thankfully planning NOT TO MOVE THIS YEAR!

God providentially put a smoker underneath us a month into our second year of the lease, thus giving me this nasty cough/asthma issue and the need to move again. Of course, getting out of the lease due to health reasons timed perfectly with Mark and Bev moving to Oklahoma-- and here we are moving into their house tomorrow (10).

God gives us good gifts. In our new house, we'll have big bedrooms, Buddy the neurotic border collie, BARB, a yard, ANNIE, space for more guests, and a chance to live in an exciting multi-cultural neighborhood. Did I mention the books get to come out of the plastic tubs in the basement? And BARB and ANNIE? And Buddy? Wow! So now I just have to finish work today, run errands, and head home to finish packing. I'll give you another update after moving and after the cable man comes to re-connect the Internet.