March 26th - Movin on to the Northwest Side

the house we have moved into

     I don't know how many of you remember the sitcom called the Jefferson's that ran back in 1979 - 1984 ish (that shows my age) but i do at least from the re-runs that always seemed to on the television. The theme song to that show was 'Movin on up' and in the case of that family they moved on up to the east side to a deluxe apartment in the sky (sing along if you know it) and in our case it is movin on over to the northwest side to a much more modern  house in Glebe Meadow.
     That is our situation, as you may or may not have read earlier in the blog we found out that we had to move out of our lovely dwelling on Winchester St and at the time we did not have any options of where to go. In the eleventh hour the Lord provided a house for Rebecca, Lizzie and I to move into, and it is right here in the village. It is about an 8 minute walk to the Co-op rather than a thirty second walk, but we'll trade that for all the benefits of this house we now are moving into. To have this kind of house come available when it did was providence as we were really desiring to stay in Overton, to continue living together and not to have to downsize considerably because as you may or may not have read we are adopting. When there was nothing that was coming up for rental we were concerned but fear never really kicked in rather a peace that we would be taken care of.

     So after our trip to America we knew that the next big thing on our agenda of life was to move house, they say it is one of the more stressful activities that one can go through. I'd say that this move has gone quite seamlessly and much of that can be down to the amazing people that we have had around us during the actual move and the run-up to it. On Friday night Rebecca gathered her youth cell at our new house and while it only housed boxes at the time they were let loose to go throughout the house to pray, worship and listen to God and write down what they hear. These post-it-notes were found all over the place, on the doors, windows, the floor, each room had thoughts from God heard by the teenagers, they are ones who will spend time here. Then we came to Saturday, the big day from our perspective as it was the one when everyone was coming to lend their  brawn and elbow grease. The weather was gorgeous and an army of eager workers each of whom will here be named;  (in no particular order); Murray, Catherine, Amelia, Barbara, Alan, Malcolm, Phil, Simon, Jeff, Tiffany, Rhian,Wendy, David, Peter, Carol, Chris, Karen, David, Mark, Chris and Mike. They were an army each marching to the beat of  and without them we could not have accomplished the moving of all the furniture that we have accumulated over the years.
     14 is a big house and to clean it meant many people giving it their all, and this is exactly what happened. A move like this underscores the value of community, I personally don't know how people who aren't surrounded by a loving community of friends can do something like this without professional or hired help. We have always seen our friends as our family and in this case it was a great day of working, eating and being together all around one goal of helping to get us from there to here. It goes without saying probably but these same people who helped us this weekend are ones who will be around when we arrive back on this fair isle with a little addition to our family. When you need others help is when you realize how much life can't be lived on it's own. I think that the old saying that it takes a village to raise a child is so true, we look really forward when we have opportunity to put that into real practice.

Check out this interesting version of Movin on Up