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| Late-night entry into our new home state. |
After repeated attempts to sit down and blog – here it is: I’m blogging - from Colorado!
The task has seemed overwhelming and undoable since about a week into our time in Tennessee with my family. There was so much to share and tell, even at that point. I wanted to describe, in detail, our 5-hour late start leaving Raleigh, how I got us lost so that after more than an hour on the road to Maryville, we were only 25 minutes from our now-empty apartment. I wanted to tell you about Benny’s first hotel stay in Asheville, where we had to stop because we were too tired to drive any more, and our attempts to see the Biltmore without paying (That was unsuccessful).
Once we got into Maryville, I wanted to blog about seeing dear friends, celebrating the 4th of July at a parade and fish-fry in the tiny town of Greenback, and whiling away our afternoons snoozing in the hammock. I wanted to tell about how Adrian broke that same hammock the first time he laid in it :) There were meals with my parents, afternoon bike rides to the Greenbelt and Vienna Coffee, time spent swimming at the river and getting a free dip-cone from Two Dips and a Scoop in Townsend. Then there was that disastrous hair-dyeing experience when I tried to dye Grandma’s hair brownish-red and it turned out fuchsia. Whoops.
And then….the trip west. It was an adventure through Americana and a physically exhausting four days of driving. Because we had to get both cars out here, A and I drove separately the entire way from North Carolina to Tennessee to Kentucky to Illinois to Missouri to Kansas and eventually to Colorado. I wanted to tell you about stopping to see Stephanie and baby Amos, spending the night with my aunt and uncle in St. Louis and how the turtles escaped, not once, not twice, but three times throughout those visits. I wanted to tell you about our wonderful date night in Kansas City, where we saw the final Harry Potter in a theater that outshines every other theater. I’m talking leather recliners, waiters, Vanilla Dr. Pepper, unlimited popcorn refills – including on their cookies & cream popcorn – bathrooms with life-size paintings of actresses and Harry Potter cocktails. It was seriously awesome. I wanted to tell you about Meg, our wonderful waitress at dinner that night who gave us a free piece of chocolate cake, in addition to free garlic fries.
If I had blogged sooner, I would have mentioned how I almost ran someone over on the interstate as they walked across it in the rain the last night of our trip. After that, I was in such a panic, and we were so tired, we spent another night in a hotel, a couple hours outside of Denver. By the time we got into Denver on Thursday morning July 21st, we were (more than) a day late and a few dollars short. We began looking at housing options immediately, and had appointments with several places that seemed promising.
They weren’t actually promising. If they weren’t clean, they were in a bad area of town, and if they were available the day before, they weren’t the day we looked, but no one bothered to call and tell us. As we were sitting in an amazing bookstore called Tattered Cover, trying to figure out where we were going to stay that night, how we were going to be approved for an apartment without any jobs yet, and where else we should look – the Lord moved in a big way.
That morning, as we were driving in, I had been praying at the Lord would make our housing obvious. We were in a Mexican stand-off, caught between needing a home to find jobs and needing jobs to get a home. As we were sitting in Tattered Cover, an apartment complex I had contacted MONTHS before called to let me know that A) They had an apartment available B) It was ready for immediate move-in and C) It was part of a government program that decreased the rent and let us count projected income as actual income. Also? We could see Coors Field from the balcony. Ah-mazing. That afternoon, after looking at a few more places, we went to see the apartment at Diamond at Prospect, hopeful they’d let us look at it that day so we'd have first dibs. They did.
We loved it, we wanted it, so we began our paperwork. Because it was a government program, there was lots of paperwork to fill out, so between Thursday night and Saturday morning, we gave them access to any information they could think of. Meanwhile, we moved our stuff out of the ABF trailer it had been shipped on (which we, mercifully, were given an extra week of storage in at no charge), put it all in a Budget truck, and parked it a mile from the apartment, where we were allowed to leave it locked up safely with no mileage charges and no storage fees.
After staying at my cousin Angie’s for two days – another huge blessing as we were out of hotel funds – we left for Wyoming and a several-day stay with A’s family while we awaited news of our approval/non-approval on the apartment.
It was a sweet time with his family and a sweet time of trusting the Lord for our housing. He had opened the door already, and he was faithful to walk us through it. On Tuesday of last week, we got the call that we were approved and could move in! I.was.ecstatic.
With the help of friends, we moved all our stuff in Wednesday and have been getting settled since then. I have since been to Denver’s brand-new IKEA twice (didn’t buy anything though!), we went to the wedding of one of our pastors and a girl from our church and have continued searching for jobs.
So there we are. We are amazed at the Lord’s faithfulness, throughout this whole process, but especially this last month. We have been blessed by random people providing us free food along the way, blessed by family who housed us when we needed it, blessed by the office managers who worked with us to get us moved in so quickly, and blessed by the Lord for providing all of these things in abundance. We’re so excited about our first week in Denver, excited about the ones to come, and excited to see how God is going to provide for us through jobs! Please be praying for those to happen quickly and obviously, as we have bills to pay and I’m growing tired of PB&Js and popcorn :)
Thank you, friends, for praying for us thus far, and please continue lifting us up!
"Season by season I watch him amazed, in
awe of the mystery of his perfect ways.
All I have need of his hand will provide.
He's always been faithful to me."
awe of the mystery of his perfect ways.
All I have need of his hand will provide.
He's always been faithful to me."
PS - Once I get done editing some more photos, I'll throw some up on here. until then, here's a link to the Facebook album of our final few weeks in Raleigh and our time in Maryville.
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5 comments:
You're right...it is a doozie! Glad you made it! (I drove from AK to NC in ten days...you should try that sometime for fun!) Look forward to hearing all about the next, oh...long time!
I'm sooo glad you're here and you were able to update the blog. :-)
I love the apartment website.. haha I didn't even look around.. but thought wow! this is so big city.. haah.. now only for nashville.. haha Glad you finally updated !
how awesome the way God works things out! :) Glad you guys are there safe.
God is good....ALL the time! I am so happy that you have had so many blessings along the way. We will be thinking about yall and continue to uplift you in prayer. Please keep us in your prayers as well. We are both unemployed, looking for jobs, and daycare for Peyton.
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