Thoughtful Thursday---Handling Moving Hurdles

(Warning: this is an extremely long post. If your short on time, read the beginning, skim the bullet points and jump to the end!)

We have needed to move for awhile. We knew Christmas would be the Rubicon. Once it was passed, we needed to seriously start looking for a new place to live.

Well, God provided a great 2-bedroom apartment for us. It was the first place we looked at, in fact. It’s part of an old elementary school building that has been revamped. What makes it’s really cool is that at one point, it was the elementary school for the Christian high school from which I graduated. 

But getting here has not been an easy process.

 We were supposed to be move in on the 18th, but between a creditor putting a hold on the checking account, a garnishment on my husband’s paycheck AND an error on his paycheck all in the same week, we had to put it off until Feb. 1.

 Another paycheck error with the continued hold and garnishment put the move in jeopardy again. God provided this time. 

 A winter storm brought about 3 inches of sleet postponing the move about 5 hours in hopes of better road conditions.

 Because it was postponed, we couldn't use the free moving van we had planned on, and ended up having to rent a moving van. Of course, we hadn't planned that expense.

 We get the moving truck back to the house only to get stuck in the ice/mud! Took about an hour, kitty litter, and a tow from a friend’s truck to get it out of the yard.

 My husband falls off the ramp of the truck messing up his left side and muddying up our mattress.

 We woke up Sunday morning and have to take the moving van back. Started our car to find the cold and ice had gotten into the door that triggered the car alarm—which we didn’t know we had! Not a great introduction to the new neighbors. 

 Because we had to work on the car alarm issue for an hour in the single digits, we didn’t get a chance to gas up the moving van before returning which resulted in astronomical additional charges.

 Did I mention that except for the day of the move, my husband continued to work 12-hour shifts throughout this process? The only reason he didn’t work on Saturday was because he was so sore from falling off the ramp!

 As a result of sleepiness and soreness, and a small car, we were unable to totally finish up on Sunday and Monday. I mention the small car because we still had a lot of small things left to move. 

 We were unable to finish up Tuesday or Wednesday thanks to the 10 INCHES OF SNOW that fell on Tuesday.

We obviously live on an Emergency Snow Route! ;-)

So, here we are almost a week after the move preparing to deal with snow covered streets, in the midst of hubby’s 12 hour shift, on a day when the high will be a single digit, we will return to the house one last time to finish moving and cleaning and hoping that our few remaining belongings are not out on the curb.
(For extra credit, have your child diagram the previous sentence!) ;-)

Needless to say, all those bullet points can lead one to question and even doubt the move.

I asked my hubby why he thought we were dealing with so many hurdles.

He said he thought it was because God had great plans for us at our new place. God was allowing the enemy to challenge and test us.

That was reassuring. 

It’s one thing to face hurdle after hurdle not knowing why. It’s totally another thing to accept hurdles knowing it a promise of great things to come!

(Sorry there weren’t many humorous highlights in this post. You don’t always see the humor in a hurdle until it is history…and sometimes not even then!)