How We Got Here

Before I continue with events since the move, I need to write about how things have happened to get us to this point.

We were out of work for about one year. We had food storage and we had some money saved up. And one big blessing was that our cars were both almost paid off when John lost his job. We just had a few more payments, so then our only debt was our mortgage - and renting out our basement helped with that. John received unemployment payments for the entire year, which was another blessing. But clearly, being unemployed for that long required more than we had. My family really helped us the whole time. I need to write about how much they helped, so that my kids will always remember. I received checks and gift cards from family members for jaw-droppingly large amounts. They also bought many things for us - both things that we needed and wanted. And when we stayed with my sister, they provided much of our food, as well as free board and room. It is humbling to have such amazingly loving and generous parents and siblings. I can't be sure that I would have been so generous if our roles had been reversed. (But having experienced what we have, I am confident that I will be in the future.) It is indescribably wonderful to be self-sufficient again. I pray that I'm never in that situation again. However, what a great thing for my little family to see what lengths our relatives will go to to help us when we need it. (Even my 95 year-old grandma helped us!)

Our ward was also wonderful. The first Christmas after John was laid off, we received enough money, gift cards, and gifts from ward and family members to take care of several families. We will never have a Christmas that big again! Throughout the year, they brought us eggs, meat, and Idaho potatoes. Friends made us fun things like hair bows and a fancy apron for me. And once we received a really cute packet in the mail. It had a poem and little envelopes with notes containing different things like gift cards to the movie theater, Sparetime Fun Center, and Pizza Factory, as well as babysitting money. We were so touched.

Even after John got his job, we continued to receive help. We hired a painter that my family paid for, and my dad got a handyman to do some of the jobs John didn't have time to do. And then my dad treated the fixing of our house like a full-time job. He was always over there working on things. My mom and sisters came over often to help clean and sort. One of my brothers really aggravated an old shoulder injury working on our darn front railing. And when we had ward members come help, we had such a great turn-out. In fact, when we needed things moved from downstairs to put in new carpet, we had so many men come, they could barely move around.

I'd also like to list how things happened chronologically:

Sept. 9th - Phone interview

Sept. 28th-30th - We flew to Sayre for John's interview and to see the area

Oct. 6th - John accepted the job offer

Oct. 15th - Garage sale to get rid of excess :)

Oct. 28th - 29th - Our things were all packed up and moved to storage

Nov. 3rd - John left for PA/NY and started work on Nov. 7th

Nov. 29th - I had the house ready to show

Dec. 11th - A couple made an offer on our house

Dec. 26th - 30th - We drove to NY/PA

Jan. 17th - Our house in Utah closed and our offer on one in NY was accepted!

It was an incredibly stressful time. And not having our toys, clothes and other things still makes things pretty hard sometimes. But it is surprising how comfortable everything feels. We love our new ward. John is the Young Men's pres. and I am teaching the Gospel Doctrine class. And the kids are doing very well in school. They really seem to like it. I stopped having them ride on the bus after the first couple of days, because they rode with older kids and were hearing things I didn't like. I just drive them now. Eli goes to cub scouts up with the other ward, which is much larger. The company John works for is wonderful. We couldn't be more pleased with his work situation.

We will close on our new house on Feb. 28th. It is on nearly six acres of gorgeous land. The sweet older couple that live near our future house say that deer will come and look in our windows and that wild turkeys will wander across our yard. We will also see wood chucks and foxes. I'm so excited to move! But our apartment that the company is providing is nice, and they pay for cleaning people to come here once a week. :)

Here is our Utah house all freshly painted and carpeted: