I’m a little behind in
keeping up with writing.
It was a crazy last 10
days, to say the least.
I was going to write in
chronological order, but instead I’m going to jump around.
I’ll write about my
first week at work later. Right now I’m
going to write about the past weekend and the past few days. I won’t have internet at my place for a while
so my blogging may be scattered here and there.
Thursday:
I left work around
2:20. Just in time to make it
downstairs, out the door and catch the 2:34 bus. I made it to my car a little before 3 and
then headed west, towards Ohio.
It was a nice drive
home, stopping only a few times, once to take a quick 45 minute nap at
the NY/PA line. I made it back to
Rittman around 1:30 am. I crashed on the
couch and slept a few hours.
Friday:
Woke up late at
9:30 and started finishing up a few things around the house. I called the owner of the house (will explain
the details later) that I would be renting to make sure she (current tenant)
had in fact moved out the previous day like she agreed.
She hadn’t. And was refusing to leave.
Which meant I had a
trailer coming to load up my stuff at 1pm, a job to get back to,
and no place
to live.
The current heart
palpitations I had started to have their own chest pains.
I made a few phone
calls, and the word was spread. I needed
a temporary place to move into and needed it quick.
Within 2 hours, we had
a place.
The truck and trailer
arrived promptly at 1 and people started showing up to help. I was rather scatter brained, tired, and
fighting emotions. I hope I thanked each
one who helped. I couldn’t have done it
without them.
We loaded everything up
within a few hours and the trailer was shut and driven to my brother in law and
sisters house to wait for Monday morning.
Friday evening, before
Good Friday service, I went to the hospital to see everyone. I knew if I went at 6:30p I would get to see
2 shifts worth of friends.
It was so good to go
back. I needed to see everyone again and
spend a little more time with them.
The kids and I went to
church and heard a wonderful service on the death of our Savior. It was bittersweet to look around and see all
the familiar faces and know that in a few days I would be leaving this
place. Memories of the past 30+ years
came flooding back.
Saturday:
Saturday morning I
spent more time at the house. Cleaning a
little more, checking things, etc.
Saturday evening my
friends, Diane and Gail, had a farewell party for me and the children. I’m not sure how many people came, but there
were a lot of people that showed up and I was overwhelmed at their goodness.
I did good not crying
until the end when they pulled out three little scrapbooks. Even in the rush of the past 2 weeks, a
couple friends found time to give a scrapbook page to each one of the
children’s Sunday School classmates.
Each page was loving done and decorated with memories, pictures, Bible
verses, and songs.
It was then the tears
started to flow.
They had also sent a
blank card to everyone who was invited.
They were to put words of encouragement, pictures, etc. on it for me to
take with me.
I loaded up the gifts
(yes, there were even gifts!), cards, and flowers from the centerpieces and
went back to my moms.
The children and I
opened our gifts and then I started going through the cards. I sobbed through most of them. So many kind words and memories were written. People gave so generously. It wasn’t expected or necessary, but it has made
the financial aspect of this move so much easier.
After getting the
children settled, I ran out to the store for some treats and then into the
hospital to see the other team that wasn’t there the night before. I snuck in through ER and spent a little time
with them down there. I snuck up to the
3rd floor and surprised everyone.
I spent an hour or so with them and then headed home. I was tired and it was late. It was hard to say goodbye again, but it was
great to see them all before making the big move.
Sunday:
Went to church knowing
it was going to be an emotional day. The
day was beautiful and so many people offered their prayers and support.
Everyone I spoke to
said they would pray for God’s blessings to be upon me. For the first time in my life, I stopped and
really listened to that. To think about
the words and the depth of them. To have
someone ask God to pour blessings upon someone isn’t to be taken lightly, and
until this point I always did.
After the second
service, the minister announced that we would be moving. He said a few words and then said the desire
of the Rittman congregation was the same as the words Moses said to Aaron in
Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless thee
and keep thee. The Lord make His face to
shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”
At this point I had no control of the tears. To sit among my brothers and sisters and
Christ and feel their love and support, in agreement of the words being read,
was so touching. It is an incredible
feeling to have that blessing put on you.
The congregation then
sang “God Be With You Til We Meet Again” It was so hard to mentally digest the
reality that I was leaving. It was real and
I was really moving.
After church, I slipped over to the cemetery. I needed to say goodbye to my dad.
I took one of the
flowers that were on the tables from the party the night before and planted it
at dad’s grave. I’m sure it will die,
but it felt good to give him something.
It felt like I was including him somehow.
I asked my children to stay in the car. I needed time alone with my dad.
Sunday evening we had
dinner at my moms. The whole family was
there and it was good. We had a great
meal and then as the evening went on, we all knew that the time to say good bye
was coming soon.
We took family pictures
and later realized that when Riley was taking pictures with my sister’s Iphone,
he was really videoing. It was so much
fun to see and hear us interact. My
brother would pinch us girls while we were trying to get a picture and in the
video you would hear the scream of whichever girl he got.
We said our good byes
and the tears started. I was doing okay
until my little niece started to wail.
She was sobbing and hanging on to me.
It was so hard to say goodbye to all of them.
After everyone left,
the kids and I stayed up and spent some time with my mom. I knew I should get to bed, but wanted to
spend time with her and Riley (he is staying with her until the end of the
school year). Finally around midnight I
went to bed. I had to get up at 2 am to
load up and head east.
To be cont’ with
Monday-Tuesday…..
Hope things are going well!
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