Down to Texas

We’re in Texas at language school. Saturday we picked up the truck and began loading it. Yes, truck. Sigh. Who knew we could have that much stuff to take with us. It was actually the smallest truck that U-Haul rents out so it wasn’t that bad. Sunday night was James’ ordination service (I’m married to an ordained minister!) and Monday we got up bright and early to take off for Texas. But we had to finish loading first. So, after much ado, running errands and all the fuss and bother of it, including my brothers coming over and helping us get the last of the things in, we finally set out.

It was raining. It hasn’t rained in weeks in St. Louis and it rained off and on all day when we were finishing packing and leaving. Not to mention the fact that we got stuck in traffic on our way out of town. Gaelin was exhausted and needed a nap but refused to sleep. James was driving the truck and I was following with the van. No sooner were we out on the road than I glanced back and noticed that Gaelin had climbed out of his carseat! Ethan was sitting in the back and he helped me by getting Gaelin back in his chair and buckling him in. 5 min. later he was out again. So Ethan got him in again. After 45 min. of this, Ethan was in tears and so was I. We finally stopped for a potty break and James dealt with Gaelin appropriately. Then, on the next stretch of driving he finally fell asleep. Later in the evening, after we stopped for gas and to eat he started doing it again. So I started pulling over and dealing with him every time. It took longer but I think he got the hint because it improved dramatically after that!

When we got here, everyone was already here. A lot of the other missionary men helped James unload the truck. In only a few minutes we had everything unloaded and stacked in the livingroom of the house in which we’re living. Then began the awesome and overwhelming job of finding the things we needed to sleep that night – primarily bedding for the beds. We’d used a lot of the bedding as packing buffer for breakable things, or as fill for containers that weren’t quite full. So it was spread through many of the boxes. Mrs. Cobb was so gracious and fixed supper for us! It was a blessing to have “real” food!

Class began Wednesday morning bright and early, so we also had to find clothes. We had most everything we needed for that but breakfast was quite the challenge. We took an emergency trip to town to Walmart to get the things we needed and then turned the truck back in at the same time. Then it was home and to bed.