Memories...Months 91-100

And so we've reached the last of these posts! The memories of the last ten months, which have totally changed our lives! It's crazy to think that ten months ago we were living in a different city and working different jobs, and had so much about our life that was completely different than it is right now. The craziest ten months of our lives, right?

Month 91. 

And this was the month in which EVERYTHING changed. How do I even pick one thing to be a highlight? They were all highlights! We came to Grabill for our interview. The next day we accepted an offer for the job, and the day after THAT, we found out Ryan's rehab hospital would be closing and he would be losing his job. I turned in my resignation at the church and started packing our house so we could move! By the end of that month, we were under contract on our house and I worked my last day at the church. What. A. Whirlwind.

Month 92. 

Ryan me in my garage sale/packing adventures. We passed the baton of our home to its new owners, took our final photos, and packed up to go to Grabill. We started out living in a temporary apartment while we went through training during the day, and we spent the beautiful summer evenings taking long walks. We closed on our house and returned to Kokomo to pack our moving truck and make the official, final move to Grabill! This was a first for us...living more than 15 minutes from our families and the town where we grew up!

Month 93.

We launched into our new job, learning as we went. We began to get to know our tenants through conversations, game nights, and transportation runs. We began to learn to make time for us, too, in our down time. We found some parks to hike, worked on putting together our apartment (another first for us), and began hunting in earnest for an RV to call our own! This was also the month Ryan said his final goodbye to his co-workers from the hospital, which was a grieving process, since he'd spent a decade living life with these people every day!

Month 94.

This was a fun month! We found a sunflower farm to explore, an outdoor ice cream shop to enjoy, and bought a kayak to use on our days off. (Allen came to kayak with us this month, which would be our last chance to do this with him, and we didn't even know it.) We continued to get to know our tenants through our work and had a lot of fun planning community days for them! We took a class at church to learn about the feasts of the Bible, which was both fun and informative. But our best memory of this month was purchasing Abby, our sweet RV girl! Dream come true!

Month 95:

We celebrated EIGHT years of being engaged...with chocolate! We took our kayak out for its final spin and went on a long bike ride on a trail! We took our tenants to a pumpkin patch and then decorated pumpkins here at the building! WillowBridge turned one year old, and we had fun celebrating that, too. But our biggest task that month was doing demo work on Abby and beginning our reno project! SO MUCH WORK!

Month 96. 

Fall showed up in full force, and we stayed busy at work and at home! We finished up painting in Abby - and Ryan finished up his 196 coats of paint on the cabinets. (He may never look at a paint brush again.) We made a quick trip to pick up our Christmas stuff from storage, which was Abby's first trip out on the open road! We decorated our apartment for Christmas, and then we had another first: our own Thanksgiving. We made all the food, and it was so much fun!

Right after Thanksgiving, we left for our eighth anniversary trip, in Richmond, Indiana. We stayed in a SUPER COOL Airbnb loft above a coffee shop and enjoyed doing the Wayne County chocolate trail and scavenger hunt while we were there! We also had a private tour of the Levi Coffin House before we came home!

Month 97.

When we came home from our anniversary trip, it was time to kick Christmas into high gear at WillowBridge! We decorated the building together, which was so fun! Gateway had a virtual Christmas party for all the staff, which was so creatively done, and we loved it. Ryan and I were home for Christmas Day, rounding out the year of holidays on our own, and we actually really enjoyed it! And I think one of our favorite memories from the month was the WillowBridge Christmas night. It was a joy to see our tenants all caught up in the joy of opening gifts and celebrating together. Though we don't have kids, we imagine it must be kind of what parents feel like watching their kids on Christmas morning!

Month 98.

We welcomed 2021 this month! We continued working in Abby, doing more finishing touches. (This is when Ryan figured out he can do upholstery!) We celebrated the birthday of one of our tenants and spent a little time helping Allen clean out some of Nita's things at the cabin. We had no clue that would be the last time we'd ever see him. The snow found us that month too, which felt like the biggest thing we did. Shoveling upon shoveling upon shoveling upon shoveling. What a workout!!

Month 99.

This was the month of the unexpected. More snow (which we should have expected in February in Indiana, but still...). I was a guest in a college class (via Zoom) and our internet picked RIGHT THEN to get cranky. Of course. We had a wonderfully fun Valentine's Day celebration for two at home together! And right after that, we received the news that Allen had died from a heart attack, and our entire world upended again. So many arrangements and decisions and goodbyes - without warning. Our second parent loss in just two years. One with months to prepare and one without a moment's notice. Both so hard in such very different ways.

Month 100.

And now we're to this hundredth month together, which we'll celebrate in a couple of days. It's been a whirlwind of change again. Ryan and his siblings have been hard at work (zooming and texting often) to wade through all the paperwork after Allen's death. One of our tenants moved away, and that brought with it a deep wave of grief for us, because we love each of them so much! So as we work on the push and pull of hellos and goodbyes within the building, we've had a lot to process! And I think our biggest moment this month was officially finishing Abby in preparation for her first real outing! 

One hundred months of life together. Adventure. Joys. Sorrows. Challenges. Change. I'm so grateful we've gotten to experience it all together. Life looks so different than it did 100 months ago, and I have no doubt it will look different in 100 months down the road. But I am so very grateful for the gift of life with Ryan and the ways God is using us together! 

Thanks for reminiscing with me!! :)