Last Goodbyes

 March 28th was our last day on duty at WillowBridge. It was a strange feeling to know it was THE last day. 

I started the day alone in the WillowBridge office with my coffee cup - where I've started many days in the last 20 months. I sat quietly, pondering and waking up. (We had no furniture in our apartment by this point, so if I wanted to sit anywhere, it had to be in the office or community room.)

Ryan and Lexi joined me, eventually, because again - no furniture.

Pretty much the only thing I could do that day was take notes. Everything else was already shifted to Sean and Sarah at that point. 

We met up with a Gateway coworker for coffee, and while we were gone, my friend Julie and her mom came over and gifted us an apartment cleaning. We were SO grateful. 

That afternoon, we said goodbye to our tenants. This one was so sad to see Lexi go. 

And then we were done. We had dinner with Sean and Sarah (it was Sarah's birthday) and then we did last pictures with our empty apartment.

March 29th was our final moving day. We woke up and walked over to the coffee shop for one last breakfast and coffee date.

One last picture with WillowBridge. 

And then our final goodbyes to Rob, Cordin, Travon, Sean, and Sarah. Sean and Sarah prayed over us, said goodbye to Braeya and Lexi, and then it was time for us to go!

We have no photos of the move itself. Ryan and I were both crying, and so was Braeya. Lexi barked most of the way to Bluffton. We were all kind of a mess, and it felt representative of life, a bit, I think. But come back tomorrow, because I'll have some beautiful firsts for you! 

A Little More from the Moving...

Can you handle a few more stories from the moving days? I'm just so excited to have my pictures back so I can finally share with you! :) 

As we prepped to move, it was also time to prep to move another very important family member: ABBY!!!!! She'd been all bedded down for the winter, and about a week before we moved, Ryan took off her cover and put the batteries back in her so we could take her with us!

I hadn't been inside since last fall, and it was SO GOOD to see her again. I missed this girl!

We've had some people ask us about her. While we are not unable to have her at our house (like there isn't an HOA that prohibits having a camper, and several people in our neighborhood do have them), it appears that it will be challenging to keep her here because of a level ground issue. Campers have to be kept level, and our driveway is too steep to level her out appropriately. Fortunately, our friends offered (before we could even state a need) for us to let her live at their house, so that's where she'll be! We are grateful for their kindness and hospitality. 

The first day we took things over to our new house was LITERALLY the only nice day of all the days we moved. It was chilly, but so sunny and bright, and we were grateful for that! 

This was a day off for us, and Ryan was so happy that he had everything situated just how he wanted it!

Headed over to the new place for the first time (with stuff)!

And ready to unload! No casualties!

We unloaded it fairly quickly, actually. 

And then, since it was the only nice day in the forecast, we headed back to load up furniture. This was the day we did the loading on our own, and I'm so serious: it was only the grace of the Lord that gave me the strength to help Ryan with this. I look back and still do NOT know how we did this. But we did it. 

Yes. I am wearing winter gloves, because it was the only way I could handle the sharp corners of the furniture. 

We took that load over and carried it all off the truck too (in the rain, but we were able to just unload into the garage, so it was okay!) and then it was back to packing. It was right about this point in the game when I got so sloppy. I was just throwing things in boxes. We had less than a week at this point, and I couldn't afford to be too picky anymore. 

My labeling game became this: 

While I packed, Ryan patched walls at the apartment:

We were thankful that Tim came over one day and helped carry the furniture that was just really and truly too much for me. THANK YOU, TIM!!

If you've never taken apart a table with a puppy's help, it looks something like this:

Yours truly prepping to pull out of the parking lot with a car full of stuff!

And that brings you up to our final day of goodbyes and our last trip over! When I look back on these days of packing, transporting, loading and unloading - while still working - I really don't know how we did it. It was completely stressful, and a few times I feared I may end up having a stroke or heart attack or something, but we got through it no worse for the wear. And here's to NOT moving again for a good long while!! 

Glimpses of Packing

 GUESS WHO HAS INTERNET AGAIN!!?!?!!?!?!!?!

Two WONDERFUL men showed up at our house yesterday morning and had us connected in very short order. I was so happy, I could have cried! So after transferring over FIVE HUNDRED PICTURES from my phone, I am going to back up and show you bits and pieces of things you've missed!

First up, I wanted to share a few pictures from our moving adventures. I think I said this, but in case I didn't, this time we didn't do one big moving day. In fact, we moved almost everything on our own, just the two of us, over a series of days as we had time. Ryan's dad loaned us his truck, and Ryan's sister loaned us her enclosed trailer, and both of those were SUCH blessings. Oh my goodness. I seriously can't even explain. If we'd had to rent vehicles each time, it would have been so costly. 

SO!!! Here are some glimpses of moving...

Here is a picture I couldn't share in real time, because I hadn't even told you there WOULD be a move! This was the very first night we started packing boxes. At this time, Rob, Sean, Sarah, and our other two immediate coworkers knew we were moving, but we hadn't told the tenants or Gateway as a whole. I had to try to pack very quietly so the tenants wouldn't hear the tape roll ripping. (We also had to try to sneak boxes into the building when we thought they would all be at work.)

Lexi never did become friends with the sound of the tape roll ripping. She would bark her head off at it every single time. (This also made packing interesting, since we didn't want her barking to disrupt the building!)

This one was backed to the brim with 12x12 scrapbooks. Ryan had to use a furniture mover to get it on and off the truck. ;) Also - three cheers for Tim and Justine, whose child had recently had a birthday and that resulted in some good-sized boxes donated to our move! 

The room that takes forever: the office. :) But for the most part, it was one of the rooms we could start packing early, because we definitely weren't going to have time to read during this adventure!

We just packed whenever we could. Usually it required all of our weekend days, plus whatever snippets of time we could find in between working adventures. The closer we got to the end of our time, the more time we had to pack, because we were slowly removed from WillowBridge responsibilities and mostly just had to be available if needed. We didn't have to attend as many meetings or planning sessions. 

I did most of the actual packing into boxes, but Ryan did help with some of it! And yes, those are VHS tapes. What. Do you not have those? ;)

Since we didn't have a garage or storage space, all the boxes just lived in random corners of the apartment. It was an adventure!

And sometimes it was just straight up MESSY. An utter delight for two Type A individuals. ;) 

Braeya was a fabulous supervisor. And the tape didn't bother her nearly as much as it did Lexi, so she stuck around for a lot more packing.

Then the day came at last when we could start packing things INTO THE TRAILER for the first trip over to the new house! We did have a few seasonal things in the WillowBridge shed, so we started with that and then hauled out boxes from the apartment stash. That sidewalk a few photos down is a lot longer than it looks when you're Bekah hefting furniture! :) Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the two of us hefting furniture, because we were out of hands with which to take pictures!

Ryan is truly a master at efficient packing. He enjoys it and is REALLY good at it. We were able to get everything moved in just four trailer trips because he was SO good at efficient arrangement. 

And after we had everything moved out - I went right back to packing up more things! 

So there you have it! Caught up on glimpses of packing to move! 

My Day at IF: Kirklin

 

Yesterday I shared with you a little of the heart lessons I learned on Saturday while at the IF local gathering in Kirklin, Indiana. Today I thought I'd tell you a little about the day itself!

Let's start with what it's like to get up at a "real" time! One of the things we did get spoiled on during our time at WillowBridge was NOT getting up super early. An early getting-up time for us there was about 7:30 so we could be prepared to be backup drivers if needed by 8 a.m. But our official day didn't begin until 9 a.m. and I tried very hard not to be overly zealous in being dressed and ready prior to that very hour. 

But Saturday I needed to be on the road by 6:30 IN THE MORNING!! I pretty much got ready the night before, so I could just roll out of bed, get dressed, and get going. It is extremely rare anymore for Ryan to not accompany me to a speaking engagement. (It's one of my typical non-negotiables, but for us on this day, it worked out better for him to be back at home to tend to some other things.)

So to recap: I was up 3 hours earlier than normal, driving myself (something I have not done in a very long time), and OH!!!! It snowed. Of course it snowed. ;) 

Ryan was so good to me and had the car all ready: gas tank filled, GPS loaded, speaking supplies packed. He got up early too, to make sure I didn't oversleep, made my coffee, and prayed for me before I left. I just love him so. He kept me well supplied with texts and pictures throughout the day, too!

I had to giggle, because the first thing that happened to me after I got on the road was a train delay. That happened to me on the regular at WillowBridge, but this was the first time I've been caught by one here. Then I ever-so-narrowly missed some deer that crossed the road in front of me. I adored seeing them, because you know my ridiculousness for deer, but I also adored that they did not injure my vehicle and I did not injure them! 

My two-hour drive was blissfully uneventful. I didn't get sleepy, I didn't have trouble with slick roads, I didn't get stopped by accidents or construction...it was good, and I was grateful. 

My GPS tried to take me right past the church, but I outsmarted it. :) 

The church where I spoke was in a super small town that reminded me quite a bit of Grabill! This was the church - and the ladies who were there were all SO kind and welcoming. It's always a bit unnerving to walk in when you don't know anyone! 

The committee who put on this event had done such a beautiful job of decorating. It may have been cold and snowy outside, but it was fully spring INSIDE! They even had a photo booth - but I didn't get over that way. (HOW??)

Those are plastic tablecloths cut in circles! A labor of love!

All the food was so good. They had fruit, bagels, and breads for breakfast and then lunch was salad and some ADORABLE cupcakes. There were afternoon snacks too, but that was right about the time I spoke, so I didn't partake. 

A husband and wife duo did the music, and they were SO good.

One of the ladies at my table was kind to take a couple of pictures for me when I spoke!

By the time the conference was over in the afternoon, the sun had actually come out! I was able to use my sunglasses on the way home! (I told Ryan when I left in the morning that I was taking them in faith - ha!)

It was a really wonderful day, and I'm so glad I had the chance to be part of it! 

Sunday Sentiments

 

Yesterday I spoke at an IF Gathering, and I'll tell you more about that this week. But today I want to tell you one of my favorite things about that day.

Just in case you aren't familiar with IF, let me give you the quick synopsis. The original, main gathering was a little over a month ago in Texas. There were many well-known speakers on the roster, and their teachings were recorded. Then churches and other gatherings could host local versions of IF and share the videos of the teachings.

The church who hosted the one I went to yesterday asked me to share in person at the end of all the recorded talks.

Because the setup of the event was a little different from a normal women's conference or retreat, I was able to sit in on the teachings of all the other speakers before sharing from my own heart.

It. Was. Beautiful.

My day started early, because I had about a two hour drive to reach the church, but it was worth leaving home in the dark (AND THE SNOW!) to have a day of heart-filling. I scribbled notes in my journal and soaked up the ideas presented throughout the day.

It's been a while since I've attended such an event. I think the last one I went to was the November before the pandemic, when I went to a women's leadership conference in Tennessee. I enjoyed that one too, but I sorely missed Ryan while I was gone! This was just one day, so I was home to him much sooner!

One of the things that Jennie Allen (the founder of the event) shared in her talk was that in general, we have all but abandoned speaking to people face to face. We are a lonely people because we've become accustomed to just staying home and choosing movies over fellowship. She went so far as to say that even when given an opportunity to interact with others, most of us will choose to stay home with our jammies instead. We're uncomfortable with the idea of having conversations, because they could get difficult and awkward, and we don't want that.

Convicting!

As we reevaluate life and priorities, my heart is convicted to find the balance between carving out time for rest and our own family time here at home and time for and with community and friends. It really does matter. The richness that can come into our lives from the people around us can't be manufactured in other ways, and we will be better people if we don't miss those opportunities. 

I am grateful for the chance I had yesterday to enjoy some community and learning, and I am grateful for the challenges issued to my heart for the future we have ahead!