Dear Ones,
On Friday July 17th we sold our house on Rippey Street. Â This is truly a bittersweet triumph for many reasons, but we are looking forward at this moment. Â We had the help of many of our neighbors as we worked into the night trying to get the moving van packed late last Thursday July 16th.
If you have never moved yourself, I am not sure I’d recommend it if you have four kids, a cat, a dog, and a whole lot of stuff.  If Bill Perkins had not been in the van doing some box packing origami (seriously the 17′ van was packed chock o’ block full floor to ceiling) we would have been in serious trouble.  But thanks to Bill, BJ, Eric, Karl and all the kids we managed to pack 96% of our belongings into the moving van, our van and our little open trailer.  Then on the day of closing we packed until the very last moment and left with a 4% still scattered around the basement and in a few piles.
(miniature horses at the rental farm)
Thankfully our home’s new family was gracious and understanding and allowed to return on Saturday to finish up removing the last of the debris.  It took about 4 hours to clean out the basement, sweep and vacuum and pack it up in our van but we managed to get it all in and head back up to Sharpsville (SV).  We had left the kids up at the house to rest and recover and manage the animals (except the fish, did I mention the fish?  They were in a half empty fish bowl wedged between my feet for the ride to SV).
So we woke up on Sunday morning, Mike had wisely taken this Sunday off and we took our time getting up, visited a different local church for worship.  (Very tragically we just heard today that that church’s senior pastor committed suicide, so please pray for them.  Life is so very messy and as Christians we have no delusions about being perfect.  So the response to this, regardless of what comes to light, is compassion for the toll that sin takes on all our lives.)
 (cows at the rental farm)
We spent late Sunday afternoon trying to unpack the truck and realizing we were running out of room, but after some coffee milkshakes (called Coffee Stirers around here) we rallied and regrouped. Â And finished getting stuff out of the truck by Monday. Â I have spent most of this week unpacking and settling us into the new rental house in Hermitage which continues to be a blessing.
(picking blueberries)
Since that wasn’t enough to keep us busy we decided to put an offer in on a property on July 16th as well as preparing for closing, it was an informal offer and we didn’t formalize it until Sunday but the sellers accepted and we are moving towards a mid-August closing date on 20 acres of woods and fields with an old barn, a newer garage, and a house that has seen better days.  We are excited and terrified.
 (the new place…)
I wanted to get this quick update out there and to thank all our amazing and generous and wonderful Pittsburgh friends and community.  There has been so much to tell but since our rental house still doesn’t have a phone or internet yet it’s been tough to stay in touch.  I can come here to the church and check my email and I was able to transfer our old Pittsburgh phone number to my cell phone!!! So don’t forget the old number, it’s still good!  So look forward to some flashbacks about the last few months 🙂
 (sunset over the pond)
Blessings,
Nicole