Absence makes the.....

"Heart grow weary" should be the rest of that well known phrase. It is absolutely exhausting knowing that the love of your life is in a country that contains people who are making violent displays of hatred toward those who share the very basis of beliefs that we do. Wow! To be hated so much for identifying with a certain religion. Threats have been made toward one of the local pastors that Robert is working with while in India for these 12 days. Unfortunately, due to this and the bombings that have taken place in Delhi, they have had to rearrange some of their schedule and location of events. We take our freedom and overall safety for granted here in the States. It's definitely worth fighting for.
Tally, on the other hand, has been such a buddy. She has had a bit of a rough time with the overall adjustment of moving and it reared it's ugly head mostly through behavior. Getting strep throat certainly didn't help the matter. So, I decided to take this time while Robert is away and Tally and I are at Papa's (my dad's), to reassure her that her life is still somewhat secure and that no matter what we really truly love her. So, she and I have been hangin' out. She's been able to see some "old" friends(their 3yrs old) and spend time with Papa. Tonight, I even got to get out of the house and go to my old MOPs group to see some friends while Tally stayed with my dad. I went for coffee with a friend afterward and returned at 1:15am(what can I say, lots to catch up on) to find out that Tally had just gone to bed 15 mins prior. She and her Papa havin' a blast and a midnight snack(cheese to be exact). Though she is nowhere close to being on a normal schedule, she has certainly been acting as though she is more secure and settled with life's happenings. I am just hoping that going back to Ohio won't be an even more traumatic adjustment.
It's 2:30am and in spite of the fact that Tally will probably be sleeping till noon, I still need to get to bed. Love to all! Please keep us in your prayers!

Mending Fences

We had a storm blow through Mansfield this week. It was quite nasty and gave us quite a bit more work to do on the exterior of the house. It knocked down the gate in the front of the house and busted the one on the other side. So, today Robert had his work cut out for him as he had to replace some of the slats and re-mount the swinging doors. He also managed to lay some new laminate flooring in my soon-to-be office and hung all the new curtains and rods I purchased this week. It's starting to feel like home. We are trying our best to separate immediate and long-term goals and do what is necessary to the house first. We have a good amount of work ahead of us, but we have only been in the house a week and have tackled a good chunk of it.

Tally, somehow, got Strep throat this week and bit her cheek on Wednesday....therefore, she has not eaten a thing since then. She was even offered brownies and fruit snacks and cried when she couldn't eat it. It was a sad week for her and me too as I have watched this torture take place. I also have been fighting off a similar illness and she and I have been watching chick-flicks together for the last few days. Tonight was the first night she was able to eat. The poor thing was only able to chew on one side of her mouth.
She absolutely LOVES church which is a huge relief to me. She looks so forward to going to her class and seeing her new friends. I am so proud of her for being such a little people person. She is so much like her Aunt Julie was at this age...she could make friends anywhere and she did.

Well, just as we are feeling more and more settled in our house, we will be packing our bags and heading back to PA on Sunday. Robert will be leaving for India with my mother on Monday and Tally and I will be spending the 10 days their gone with my father a.k.a. Papa. Tally is thrilled and I am looking forward to spending some time with friends I've been missing for the last three weeks.

SOLD!!!!

We FINALLY closed on our house yesterday. The total number of HUD's that were drawn up was 19. Usually there is only 1, but because of the psycho-drauma our lender provided, we had an extreme number of 'final HUD's'. Our realtor told us she had never encountered such problems with a lender in the entire 12 years she's been in this business. Thank God it is over. I really don't like living out of a suitcase when all of our belongings are across town.
The sign outside our house finally reads 'Sold' and we were able to spend our first night in our new home last night. Though we are still climbing over boxes and getting rid of a few extra residents that have set up camp in the corners of rooms, we are HOME! We will begin making memories here, celebrating holidays here and of course, welcoming more children into our lives here.
It's funny how you can actually fall in love with a house. The detail and personality of a home can capture you from the moment you lay eyes on it. And you and only you are willing to put up with or attempt to change it's many flaws and temperament. Though we have only been in the house for a total of 30 hours, we are already past the honeymoon phase. Our projects for the day included a trip to Home Depot to buy a toilet to replace our European wonder that resides in our bathroom as well as wood flooring so that we can rip out the only patch of carpet in the entire house and turned out to be cat-scented. Certainly not the 'new home' scent we are going for.
This morning, I came downstairs into our new living room, crossed the floor and opened the french doors leading to the dining room. When I did, the glass knob to the door fell off onto the floor. Later this morning, Robert went to open our closet doors and the wooden knob to the bi-folding doors fell off as well. We are not even here for a day and it's falling apart. Not really, but two knobs in one morning is kind of ironic.
Anywho, we are just happy to be homeowners. We love that whatever we do to this house will benefit us in the years to come.
Tomorrow will be our second Sunday at our new church and already we have gotten into a groove here. Tally loves her classes and has met several new friends. Robert has been getting to know his worship team and they have all been quite welcoming. And I have found my seat on the front pew with the other pastors and their wives. This is quite a switch from the back row. :-)

Somewhere between here and there

Yesterday I did not go over to "our house". I did not want to look at it or have anything to do with it. Luckily we're staying at my aunt's house, so I could just ignore the fact that I have an entire house to unpack. The clincher still being; we don't own it and therefore are leary to go full speed ahead. Instead, Tally and I went to a local place called "What's for Dessert?". I got a very large cappuccino and a cookie called a "Buckeye", which she and I split...it was AMAZING. We then went to the grocery store where I was told, in five different and insistant ways, that 'Jesus Loves Me' by this guy who, even when agreeing with him, just wouldn't let up. I made dinner for the first time in two weeks and made sure Robert and I took a break from life and watch a movie. My aunt and uncle joined us and it was the first relaxed evening we've had in weeks.
Today, I ventured over to the house to simply 'pick up' a few things that I needed back at my aunts as we are heading into week two of our nomad lifestyle. As soon as I got into the house I couldn't help but to begin sorting through items. I unloaded and organized everything that needed to go into the bathroom. I gotta say, as overwhelming as it is to know there is an entire house filled with boxes that need sorting and organizing, the sense of accomplishment you feel when you've conquered just one box is quite satisfying. I've got a lot of satisfying moments to look forward to.
Tomorrow we will attend our first Sunday service at Mansfield First Assembly as Pastoral staff. The last few months of preparation for moving and starting over was not at all what I needed to sort through the piles of emotions that I've found myself in the midst of this week. In Stroudsburg, I always knew someone who knew someone else who could recommend this or that or knew my family because of some event or another. Here...I am just me. Stripped of all I've known, I am grasping for connection. There was no one to call this week to ask to watch Tally at the drop of a hat or help unpack boxes. It's a very alone feeling and yet, I know it won't always be this way. Relationships take time. You gotta be a friend to make a friend. Tomorrow I will be in search of some good friend material to invest in.
I will be following Tally's lead on 'how to make a friend'. She seems to have it down as she met little Sara on Wednesday, got the screaming child to stop and smile, and mentioned she wanted to see her at her new church tomorrow. Who can I make smile tomorrow? Who needs some encouragement? If I make a difference, I will look forward to seeing how they are the next time we meet.
I may be in the middle of where I've been and where I'm going, but I feel God's guidance and direction with every step and it's comforting.

Unraveled

One day my, almost three year old, daughter called me to the bathroom to inform me that we were out of toilet paper. "How is that possible", I thought, "I just changed the role". When I asked her where it all went, she replied, "I put it in the toilet". She made a motion that revealed how she had unroled it directly into the toilet and attempted to flush the evidence. Unfortunately, our toilet just didn't have the pressure to move it along.
Since we sat down with our loan officer, about two months ago, I feel like the entire loan application and house buying process has been like toilet paper that has been unraveled into a toilet that does not have the power to flush it and all we are left with is a huge mess to wade through.
Today, as a result of our loan-type changing for the third time, we had to scrape and prime all of the areas on our home-to-be where the paint was either peeling or chipping. This happened to be the entire detached two-car garage and all of the trim on the entire house. We were able to get a small crew of guys to help with this monstrous task and Thank God we got it done in time for it to be appraised AGAIN tomorrow(it's been appraised 3 times). And all this work, mind you, is on a house we don't even own. We also have our stuff in the house, but are not allowed to sleep there because we don't officially own it. To top it all off, we had the utilities changed over to our name yesterday.
This whole thing could make ya nuts, and yet we keep on going. Robert led worship for his first service last night and did a great job. Tally sat through most of the service and then she really wanted to go to her class. She was in the Rainbows class and LOVED it. She even made a friend named Sara! And me, well, I am exhausted trying to assist everyone with the transition and make it as smooth as possible while still keeping up with everything that has changed and is changing and will change. Other than that, this is quite the adventure and I am so glad for the family support that we have here and the fact that my aunt is letting us stay at her house until we get settled is amazing.
I will do my best to keep you up on life's happenings. At this point our projected closing date is September 12-two full weeks later from the original close date. I'm falling asleep writing my own blog...NITE!