If I needed any further motivation to enter into the blog world, our journey to St. Louis provided it! We set out around 4:30 on Sunday afternoon with Drew leading the way in our big yellow Penske truck, Dad and myself in the Malibu, and Mom and Suzanne heading up the rear in the Jetta. We merged onto Interstate 81 from the left...not easy to do when you are in a big truck. First a car illegally passed Drew on the left side of the entrance ramp, almost causing an accident. Immediately after that, a tractor trailer merged into Drew's lane without looking and sideswiped the moving truck, destroying the mirror. Drew swerved slightly and managed to get out of harm's way without losing control of the truck. He pulled off on the left side of the highway onto the grassy median, while we pulled off on the right side on the actual shoulder. We were all freaked out...it could have easily been a very serious accident. And we were stuck on opposite sides of the interstate, with no way to get to each other because of the heavy traffic and high speeds. Thank God for cell phones! We called the police and waited for them to come and help Drew get back on the road. I was pretty shaken up, alternating between angry tears at the driver who hit my husband and went on without even stopping,and thankful tears to God for keeping Drew safe. Once we got off 81, we waited at the nearest exit for the Penske repair man to come and see if he could fix the mirror. This entire process took about 2 hours, but we thought we would have no trouble making it to our hotel in Morehead, KY.
Wrong. The 81 incident provided quite enough excitement to last me for a while, but our adventure had just begun. About three hours later when we were driving through WV, the truck's check engine and check transmission lights came on. Thankfully Dad (he was driving the truck at this point...Drew demonstrated excellent driving skills in the highway incident, but I still begged him to drive in the Malibu with me for a while) had the wisdom to pull over at a rest stop and call Penske again to have them come and look at it. Several hours later the repair man still did not know what was wrong with our truck, we were going to have to spend the night in West VA and wait for a new truck in the morning. At this point my attitude really began to suffer. I was bitter at Penske for providing us with a shoddy truck, and worried about changing our moving arrangements with the seminary. But looking back there is a lot to be thankful for, the trip could have gone so much worse. We found a hotel within a mile of the rest stop where Suzanne could use her credit card points, and this hotel was "banging" as my sister Anna would put it. Well, at least it was the most comfortable hotel bed I have slept in in a long time.
Our new truck arrived around 8:00 am the following morning, with "movers" to transfer our things from one truck to the other. I use the term movers loosely. These guys were clearly not the professional movers Penske usually provides. For one thing, these guys were slooooow. There were several spans of at least 5-10 minutes where nothing appeared to be happening...they would just take a break and talk amongst themselves. They were also sloppy, as evidenced by the many scratches we discovered on our furniture upon our arrival in St. Louis. All of this was enough to raise Suzanne's ire, and mine as well. Thankfully though, nothing actually broke, and the scratches are not too noticeable. We finally got on the road around 10:00 am, and the rest of our journey, I am glad to report, was smooth sailing. We arrived in SL around 8:00 on Monday evening. The seminary sends a team to help newcomers move in, but we were not sure how many people would show since we were several hours later than expected. I'm not sure how many came from the team, but our new neighbors came out in droves to help us. We had the truck unloaded fairly quickly, and it was nice to have such a warm welcome from our new community.
Mom, Dad, and Suzanne stayed through Wednesday to help us get settled. I joked with someone that it was like a hurricane of organization passed through our house. In all seriousness, though, we were SO grateful for their help, and we never would have gotten settled so quickly if not for them. They were amazing! We have all of our furniture in place, most boxes unpacked, curtains hung, and a few pictures up as well. All of that in two days! Incredible! I have been a bit melancholy off and on since they left last night. It is so strange that we are so far away from our friends and family. I don't know that it was fully sunk in yet that we won't see them for a while, and that all of our "go to" people are out of reach. I know God has a wonderful community for us here, but I also know that all of you out there in VA who we know and love can never be replaced. We miss you!! I have felt a bit restless and without an anchor since being here, and especially since that last bit of the familiar left with Mom, Dad, and Suzanne. If I am honest, though, it is in part because I have not really been going to the Lord for rest. I have all this time, yet easily fill it with other things, rather than turning to him and realizing that He is my home. I think in facing him I have to face the sadness I feel, the emptiness at times. I know I am not empty at all, but it feels that way when I look to other things for life instead of him. All that being said, if you are reading this, you can pray for me, and for Drew, to use these few weeks before school starts well. For us to have sweet fellowship with our God and with each other. To set aside time to meet with him each day, and that our lives would be an extension of that time.
Well, I suppose I need to sign off....we are heading to the book store and then to some unknown destination for Indian food...yum...
