Moving - Moved.

The past week has been... I can't come up with a word, actually. It's been busy, crazy, tiring, frustrating, satisfying, long, stressful, wonderful and finally - OVER!

Our plan was to move on June 30. But as so often happens on this side of the world, the move date was pushed back to July 3. July 3 was an ok day because it marked our 3 year anniversary in our country. We would be arriving back in the capitol on the same day - 3 years later - that we had originally arrived. That's cool. Because of this extra 4 days, we decided to take a little mini-vacation to the Big D. It was a great, relaxing weekend.

On our mini-vacation - eating yumminess at Macaroni Grill with my 2 cuties.

We took Lucy to the movies for her first ever big screen movie! We saw Madagascar 3. She did so great and watched the whole movie! 

We got back on July 1 and I was stressed. There was SO much to do. Brad heard the movers words of "we'll pack everything for you" and took them to heart. As most of you probably know, this doesn't mean they pack EVERYTHING. There are things you have to pack in advance - clothes and toiletries, for starters. Not to mention all the cleaning out that has to happen! We had a lot to do!

On July 2, the company representative called and said that they couldn't get all the paperwork they needed to move us the next day. Blah. and Yay. Blah because it was delayed another day. Yay because I still had SO MUCH TO DO and on July 3, I was sick as a dog!

Finally, July 4 rolled around. They arrived around 10 and got started. There were 4 men packing and at first, things were going seemingly quickly. I was excited and a little overwhelmed at how fast it was all going. We decided to put everything that we didn't want them to pack into our bedroom, as a kind of "safe zone" for the day, then they could just pack our bedroom last. Our bedroom ended up being our cage for the next 10 hours.

Yep, the quickness they had in the first couple hours suddenly seemed to S L O W down. 2 other men who were in charge came by the apartment and told us that the guys would pack on the 4th and then load the truck and move on the 5th. Um, "No," we said. There was no reason they couldn't finish it all and get it moved in 1 day.

We pushed them all day. They took a 1 hr break at 2, but were back working at 3. Lucy went to the nursery that morning, but I picked her up around 1 and she stayed in the bedroom with us for the whole day. She did great besides finding a blue Sharpie and writing all over herself AND finding a bag of candy and hiding to eat some. Besides those 2 little things, she was amazing!

Around 4...then 5... then 6... I was going stir-crazy! We'd been in the same room ALL DAY LONG and they hadn't even started on our bedroom! What in the world was taking them so long? And didn't they realize that we still had a 3 hour drive back to the capitol city in front of us? We weren't spending another night!

Around 7:45, we told them "Enough," and asked them to stop. They said ok and said that they would finish up at 8 the next morning, then load the truck at the same time and be out of there by 11.

Brad, Lucy, and I and ALL of our luggage for the next 6+ weeks loaded up into the car. It was a tight squeeze, but thankfully, I'm a great packer and we got it all in and on top. We left the apartment for the last time around 8:05 pm on July 4. Not exactly the most exciting way to spend July 4th, but what can you do?

We got to the capitol and our temporary home around 11:30 pm. WOW what a long day.

The next day, after not a lot of sleep from all of us, we rested. All day long. It was wonderful! And the moving company that was supposed to be there at 8 ended up getting there around 10, I think, and they were supposed to finish around 11, ended up finishing around 4 or 5.

I praise the Lord through all of this. He poured out so much grace on me that day! Yes, I had moments where I thought I was gonna explode - including a FaceTime chat with my mom where she was eating bacon in front of me and I totally got on to her! (Sorry, Mom! Wasn't my finest hour!) But for the most part, I was great. And the biggest truth of the day - "It's just STUFF."

Thank you, Jesus that it's over! We are enjoying being back in the capitol city again, with all of it's humidity - yay - and restaurants and friends!

Packing or cleaning out or just playing... 

 We're finally getting some really good smiles from Lucy these days in pictures!

 Moving always makes you realize you have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!

Finally, the movers arrive!

 Tell an Arab man that you're preggo and this is where they expect me to be all day - sitting.

(I'm not so great at the "not getting involved" thing!)

 Packing, packing, packing...

 FINALLY! 

We arrived! This is Lucy's "new room" and her big girl bed. She finally slept through the night last night (our 3rd night here) and so we got to sleep all night, too! Praise the Lord!