We're DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

But it wasn't without its problems. Sunday morning after my last post, Michael came over and we all went downtown to pick up my brother. We stopped and I bought everyone lunch and we were having a grand old time talking on the way to get the truck. We were even talking about starting a new show--"Pimp My Walker"(because my Dad has to use a walker for the next 4 weeks after having his hip replaced). Brian said we should email our idea to Ellen (Degeneres) and see if she would use it as a segment on her show. My parents are old. They are very old school too. Neither of them like Ellen simply because she's a lesbian. They just can't get past that. My brother is gay too. But they tell him that they love him no matter what. Well, without even thinking about it, I said, "Yeah....I don't think Mom and Dad would go for that." I tried to get around WHY they didn't like her, but he caught on anyway and that just set him off. Understandibly so, but it was all made MUCH worse due to his bi-polar. He was fine for a while, but the moment we got to the storage unit, he flipped out saying he was never good enough for Mom and Dad and no matter what he did he never would be. I felt really bad, because it was what I said that started it. But I just hugged him and helped him up the walk to meet his friend and assured him it was okay that he left.

....And then there were three.

We ended up restacking all the boxes that were already in the unit to be able to use the space better. At about 4pm, we were losing light and hope that we would ever finish (or fit everything in!!!). Just about that time, the guy that I've been emailing about going to their house church called me to see how the move went and to let me know that he gave me wrong directions to church that day. When he found out that we were still unloading and that there were only three of us, he talked with the other guys there and three more people were at our storage unit within a half hour to help us out. Keep in mind, these are people we've NEVER met...and they dropped everything and drove 20 miles to the other side of town to help us out. What would have taken us another three hours to finish, we had complete in 1 hour with the extra help. And there is NO room in that storage unit. It's 9 feet wide by 20 feet long by 7 feet high, and it is filled from stem to stern. We even had to bring a few things home with us!! Then with the help of my friend Chris (from our house church in the Springs) I went back to clean things up on Tuesday and Wednesday. Locking up the house was kind of a bittersweet moment. As I went through the house and turned off lights and opened doors, it was kinda like those "clip montage with a sappy song" sit-com episodes. Goodbye kitchen and dining room where we had so many friends over for dinner. Goodbye living room where my house church family gathered and prayed over my broken heart and my infertility. Goodbye bathroom where I first saw those two little pink lines. Goodbye bedroom where our dream was conceived and brought home to nurture. Goodbye Adriana's room where I cried tears of joy as I was setting up her crib. Goodbye computer room where...uh...well, nothing really happened there. That condo holds a lot of memories for me. I don't think I've ever had such a hard time leaving someplace. But God is still working in us, and that won't stop with this move. We're in a new season of our lives, and He has things for us to do/learn here too.

And Satan just HAD to get the last word in. Just 15 minutes from home, I was in a minor car accident. It was really icy, and as I tried to stop, my wheels locked and I slid about 50 feet into the guy in front of me. He had already slid to a stop just before hitting a stop sign, and there was a car skidded to a stop next to him. But with the way I turned the wheel to turn out of the skid, my rear wheel well cover ended up bouncing off the guy's spare tire on the back of his Ford Escape. He came out and asked if Adri and I were okay. He said he was okay. We looked at his car&emdash;no damage. We looked at my Jeep&emdash;no damage. It was butt-slapping cold out, and the city wasn't on cold reporting, so we would have had to wait for a cop. Neither one of us wanted to do that. He said, "If you're good, I'm good." I was good, so we all went home. I'm sure I had more than one guardian angel with me, because what could have been a pretty nasty and costly fender bender ended up being absolutely nothing.

So now that our move is over, we now return to our regularly scheduled life....

posted by Brandi at 9:20 AM