Nightmare on Cressmont St....

Disclaimer...

I like to read happy things on blogs or emails. I like to tell about the happy things. But we are a real family, living an all to real life. Since writing is therapeutic for me, I can't seem to find a piece of paper, and they look at me weird when I start writing on the boxes...this is my newest avenue of release. For those of you who want a feel good blog, check back another day. For those of you who want to know about the day to day, good , bad, and ugly, read on...

What is going on??? Our packers arrived as planned on Tuesday - 2 of them - but they were fast... On Wednesday, 2 packers arrived at 10:30 and said that the rest of the packers that were supposed to be here were called to another job.

Only one of the packers on Wednesday was from Tuesday- the other was s..l..o..w. SO, instead of crating us on Thursday like planned, they still had to pack some and crate some. They are here again today crating the last of our things. WHAT AN ORDEAL!!! This will be our 6th move and NEVER have we encountered such bad business. It's tough really, the ones who are packing us are great and doing all they can, but that is limited by their boss who keeps calling them to other jobs.

The crate they brought for Mark's bike was too small, so they needed to get a different crate - no problem, right? Well, today they tell us that they can't crate the bike that they will have to do it on Monday, because they are getting 2 15k lb shipments in and they are trying to move those out. Sorry, I don't care. We have been as flexible as we can but there comes a time when enough bending has occurred. NO GO JOE! We are closing Monday at 11am. Then they wanted to load it into a truck and crate it at the warehouse. Yea...NO. SO after pushing the issue, they will bring a crate today.

What a hassle. On a good note, we were able to sell the car to Landers Dodge - now they will mark it up and list it for about $4k more. What a shame. But what a blessing to us to not have to worry about it and get title info and all the red tape - we dropped it off, they gave us a check for the difference of pay off and away we go....

We have moved to the lodging on base and on Monday we will out process, close on the house and be on our way to Dallas. We are not quite sure how we will be getting to Dallas. No one can guarantee us a type of vehicle. We found one reservation that could give us a ford Escape. But they didn't know about anything bigger. Grrrrrr.

We had a sermon this past Sunday about Satan. Boy is he at work in our lives right now. Little things that we thought we under way are falling apart. We are doing our best to keep our focus and not freak out. I wish I could say I have not freaked out at all - but I can't.

When you move overseas, they give you allowances for rent and deposits, but you don't see that money till you have in processed and it usually isn't a big deal because you are in temp living arrangements for a while. Since we are assuming the outgoing commanders place, we will be moving in right away. Great right? Well today it was brought to our attention that we have to have all those deposits when we arrive since we will be moving right in. YIKES!! Our sponsor said that we should come with about $8k cash to get things set up. No problem. HAHAHAHAHA!! We will have some from the sale of the house, but...uh...

"in all things give praise" So I am praising and trusting. God is good and he will meet our needs. A good friend reminded me that in all things we are supposed to think on what is true. So I have decided to stop thinking on the "what ifs" and the "if onlys" and think on what I know to be true.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we embark this journey. We are each feeling the effects of the move in different ways - but all the ways are intense emotions. In a few short days we will be on our way to Baltimore to see family and then off we will go to Germany. I am looking forward to Monday at 1pm when the hassle will be over. If we can just find a way to Dallas now...