Successfully Moved

Written Sept 11, 2006


Well, we did it! We all lived through the move and it is amazing! We definitely couldn't have done it without Mother and Granny!!! We loaded, unloaded, lifted, carried, strained and everything else all together. We all had the bruises to prove it too and looked like we'd been victims of domestic abuse! But it was so worth it. The 4 of us stayed up late more than just one night after the children were in bed and laughed until we cried due to exhaustion and the late night funnies. It's been an amazing journey and the move itself was just as amazing. Not even the rain on moving day could dampen anybody's spirit. As we made the beautiful drive God seemed to keep saying that this was not about mourning what we are leaving but that He was pouring out through the rain incredible showers of blessings on us as we follow His direction for our lives. As we move on in our journey we are being blessed as we go. He laid before us the most breathtaking portrait in the landscape than I ever remember. The clouds shrouded the tops of the hills as we made our way through. It felt like a dream and the end of a 3 year chapter.....or finally the beginning of a new one.

I still wake up and feel like it's a dream and that we'll be going back in a few days. It's too beautiful and homey to be real. Once we'd been here a couple of days we drove into San Angelo and even that was amazing. Land and ranches surrounded us and the hills rose up in the far off distance standing tall and seemingly touching heaven. On our way there we drove through miles and miles of untouched land and we passed 10 deer on our way home. We've already met a huge portion of the town. Not even the rain could squelch people's curiosity when we arrived and they came out from all corners of the town to get a peek at the newcomers. We quit counting after 8 the number of times one Suburban drove by! They said that was the busiest day on our street in years. HA! Several brave souls came by the very next day and stopped to introduce themselves. Before Mother left we were able to get out and walk around on the property behind us that will soon be our's too. We were able to go in the old cotton gen that was closed up in 1940 that sits in the middle of overgrown grass and trees. It was so amazing. Several massive white owls flew out the broken windows as we entered. The old machinery still sits exactly as it was left almost 70 years ago and an old cotton harvesting tractor sits all rusted beyond the bldg in the tall grass. On our walk back from seeing all of that we met an elderly couple out sitting on their porch. We introduced ourselves and they already knew exactly who we were. We sat and talked on their porch for a couple of hours as the wind blew through their huge pecan trees and dangled the hummingbird feeders and windchimes. They told us who lived where and who does what. He was born and raised here in this tiny town and she was born and raised in one not far from here and together they painted an amazing historic picture. Time is so much slower here. It really is a different way of life. Nobody even locks the doors to their houses and they all leave the keys in their cars. It's like a book that's unfolding in real life and I'm actually living it. This is where I want to raise our family. We truly have come home. They hugged and loved on the children like we'd always known them and they were their's. The people here are so amazing. It's like coming home to family. They've already asked Brad to run for city council! The joke of running for mayor and winning due to the size of our family quickly became reality when they realized how active we want to be in the community. The church has already asked me to be their substitute pianist and have asked Brad to set his drums up and play. I just don't think I expected to be so readily welcomed and embraced in this tiny town. Instead of neighbors it's like a family. The water man, the only city employee, came by to welcome us and called us by name before we even introduced ourselves.

The biggest thing in town is the Fri night football game every week and, true to what we'd heard about town parties, they have a fellowship called 5th quarter after the game where the entire town congregates at the church and eats. It's a potluck and all of the old women in town cook tons of cookies and cakes and the church grills hot dogs and hamburgers. It didn't take Grayson and Evye long to make friends and meet the entire town. They all know Grayson by name at the post office now, which he rides his bike too every day now, and the lady at the convenient store hugs he and Evye and calls them by name when they ride up on their bikes. I got to meet her at church on Sun and she is something else! She loves the two of them to pieces. Everybody in town has fallen in love with Garrison and Grant and just eats them up. Somehow Evye and Aubrey attracted the teenage and pre-teen group and have a fan club now. They've invited all the girls to the house and so we now have a group of girls that sit and braid the girls' hair and paint fingernails and hold Garrett for hours on end while watching the boys while they play. It's rare that any of them are inside anymore so between trying to tend to the wasp stings, ant bites, scrapes, and mosquito bites and nurse Garrett in between it all makes it hard to get any boxes unpacked. And outside play out here makes for some dirty kids!!!! So far since we've been here the older 5 haven't been able to avoid a bath even one night. You can practically write in the dirt on their foreheads.

Almost everyone in the town works at the school and the pastor's wife, our next door neighbor, teaches 3 of the grades while one of the most incredible women we have met teaches some of the older grades. Last year they combined 3 grades since there weren't enough children to make up each of their grade levels! It's more like a homeschool helpout program than it is a school. It truly is so different here. It's like family members teaching in the school and like a cross of Papa was a Preacher school days and Little House on the Prairie days. They take really great field trips to the farms and ranches and local working cotton gens. Most of the children that we've met and all of them in church still say "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" and "yes sir" and "no sir" and call everyone by Mr and Ms. I love the spirit and the heart of everyone here. It really is like a rural farming community and almost back to the one room classroom. Not only are they Christians but we go to church with them, they are our next door neighbors, we know them and hug them every time we see them and know each person at the school by name and many of them were even homeschoolers. The thought has crossed my mind and we are diligently praying about putting the children in school. Many of the parents here homeschooled before coming to Paint Rock so there are many homeschool minded families in the school system that are actively involved with everything that takes place. They still not only pray in school but pray for each other. We talked at length at church with the people that hold positions in the school and they've all said that due to the size of the class Grayson can be worked with and pretty much privately tutored in his class. I think there's 5 in the 3rd grade. Every grade is in the same bldg so Grayson and Evye would still do everything together except their actual classes. I've both cried and rejoiced in this whole debate and never realized how hard it is to let go of so many pre-conceived ideas and even pride I didn't even know I had. But it is amazing to see that God has truly been with us every step of the entire way and has directly put us in a place that can be of so much help to Grayson and so carefully orchestrated putting us right in the middle of a bunch of like-minded people. After so many years of struggling and all of the tears God has heard every cry of our lonely journey and put us in a place where Grayson can have one on one teaching free of charge and by devout Christians that are trained to help him. We're having lunch with everybody on Fri to discuss it some more at length and ask more questions about the politics of it and how they as a school can get around what the state mandates to teach, which they say they have a pretty good way of doing. They still teach creation, and like I said, pray for each other in the school. Nothing is set in stone yet and we are still praying very hard. It depends very much on the politics and conviction of the school and also if they want to hold Grayson back a grade or two. We are not willing to hold him back since it would devastate him and could be overcome at home so we'll just continue to pray for direction and explore this new area. But it's just absolutely amazing to me that when you wait on God, even when it seems like forever, how vast and complete His blessings are when He does finally begin to move......even down to the town He places us in.

And we truly are completely TV-less here, whether we like or not! We'd turned it off before we moved except for the occasional news or allowing the children to watch a cartoon during the really hot days but since we don't have satellite here and that is the only way to get any channel at all we just don't have any reception for anything. So, with the exception of Einstein for Garrett we live completely without the TV. It's just so different here in so many ways. We truly do sit around and play board games at night with the children or read books instead of watching the TV. But the lack of TV has a downfall too since without anything out here we have to have a dial up connection for the computer. I've tried twice to send pics of everything here but the dial up just can't hack it. The other night I started sending the pics right before bed so it could work on it all night but when I got up they were only 25% sent and it had disconnected from the internet since it does that automatically after 3 hours. So, I have yet to find a way to send pics but I'll figure something out. We may just have to download them to a disc and mail them or bring them with us when we come into town.

Oh, and at our little Baptist church on Sun they had up on the podium that Sunday School attendance this week was 13 and last week was 19! HA! It was too funny. It's been 25 years since I went to Sunday School. Grayson and Evye made up the Sunday School class for their age, though they said usually there are a few more, and the younger 4 made up the entire nursery. It was really kind of pathetic because I looked up and realized in the middle of the service I had forgotten about Garrett and left him down there when my intent was to keep him with me. They were all so excited to have them all though so it worked out great. And we don't have to worry about them getting sick when they're the only ones in there! HA! And my Sunday School class was a riot. I sat with about 9 other women that were at least 50 years my senior and when reading the lesson missed about every 3rd word on the page. To give you a clue, some of their names were Edna, Mary Jim, Verna and Mazie. The 89 year old led the class and it was a hoot. I couldn't help but fall in love with them. There's a younger women's class that meets but apparently the leader of that was out of town so I got put in there with the older ones. They all begged me to join their class instead and said they are all young at heart. HA! They told me that since I have 6 children that I'll need their mentorship! hahahahaha! They all wanted to know the names and ages of the children and wanted to meet them after church was over. They all hugged them and asked Evye about her love of horses and told Grayson stories about when they themselves were little and caught the biggest lizards and frogs in the county! At one point the 89 year old was griping about the fact that the church doesn't have VBS anymore and then she said seriously, "Lord knows I shouldn't be griping about it since I'm not willing to work it." I couldn't help but laugh out-loud. All of the other women patted and reassured her saying that after 30 years of putting in her time she deserved a break. It was funny!

I love it here. I love the fact that we have been so readily embraced and that the children are so loved. I love how many true and dear friends we have made in such a short amount of time. I love how sincere everyone is. I love how slow and simple life is. I love our little house and what a gift from God it is. 3 people came forward after hearing that Mickey (the guy that Brad works with and sold us the house) had sold it and said they didn't have any idea that his house was for sale and would've bought it in a heartbeat for top dollar. Mickey said laughingly that he didn't even know his house was for sale and it just kind of sold. HA! He lives with his family out on their 400 acre ranch now in their hunting cabin until they can get their house built. But Brad and I just realize more and more everyday how blessed we have been and how carefully God has laid out every step of our way, even during the darkest parts when we couldn't see or make sense of anything.

Alright, I could go on forever. We've almost gotten everything organized and the majority unpacked so hopefully I can work on the pics and they won't be long in coming.....however they come! Mother's coming back down here to stay for awhile to help some more with unpacking so I'm feeling pretty settled. We're going to paint so we won't be hanging stuff on the walls until that's done but everything else is pretty organized and at least live-able.

Oh.......and we also have added a new member to the family. A little black cat seems to have adopted the children so after giving it milk for a few days we finally bought food for it and it's officially our's. They named him Smokey.......original, I know. This is only like the 15th cat they've named Smokey. I think this one is a keeper though.....whether we like it or not! HA!