Move-in Day!

Home Sweet Home

Move-in day is finally here! We have found a nice little country style home that I am very excited about. It will be our first second story home but I can clearly use more exercise, right?  It's just about the same size as the last house and still sits on a lovely 2.5 acres of property.  This time, however, we are surrounded by huge pine trees instead of being out in the open on a hillside.

As of last night, our garage is now filled with donations. Later today, another load will be delivered containing what was left from our previous residence that did not get burned. Following that will be a uHaul truck from three hours south of us filled with donations from the neighbors and friends were we lived for thirteen years before moving to northern Arizona. We are truly blessed and it cannot be denied.

Garage full of donations

I finally have a laptop with which I can write posts for this blog. Google's Blogger app for Droid is certainly useable in a pinch or on the go but it is tortuous at best to add multiple pictures to a post. We have no internet still but I've become quite adept at turning my Droid cell phone into a hotspot and using it as a wifi connection. Thank you FoxFi!

The community support, both local and internet, has been overwhelming. The folks at the UPS store (where I purchased my post office box) know who I am as soon as I walk through the door. "You have several packages today," they'll announce with a smile. I intend on posting a Thank You list to all commercial businesses that have helped us out in an effort to give them the props they deserve. I'll observe the many individual requests for people asking to stay anonymous as well. I got a chuckle every time I opened a package and found a note inside which read "The return address on the label of this package is ficticious."

The second-hand safe is now a member of our family

A very special shout out goes to Cody (owner of the Wranglerstar channel, see his tribute video to our family here) on YouTube and JW Rawles (owner of SurvivalBlog.com). Their internet campaigns have proven extremely helpful in many ways. Also to my friends back in Mesa in our old church ward who have shown unbelievable kindness. My buddy Brandon is busy trying to sell our old house. He has arranged new carpet, done drywall repairs (with Dathan's help) and painted. There are so many friends who have turned this tragedy into a miracle that I have to use the old cliche "I can't possibly remember them all." Our new friends and church members up north have been a godsend as well both in helping us move, giving us shelter and donations.

We will, no doubt, be moving all through the weekend. I suspect that by Sunday night we'll have a good idea of what we have and don't have. Up until this point, we put most donations into a (donated) storage unit so that we didn't crowd the gracious local families that have given us shelter. This left us in the dark as to what we really have and what we have lost. People still ask me what we need. I have to answer that I honestly don't know yet.

A "full over full" bunkbed with a full-sized trundle

The children are all doing well. Things were awkward at first. Schoolmates were silent as I suspect that they just didn't quite know what to say. That has changed for the most part now. Tomorrow (Saturday) will be our three week anniversary of the house fire. I should mention that it has helped tremendously to receive all the wonderful toys and clothing. The dolls, horses, hair doodads etc has kept the girls in their normal girlie routine.

The rest of the family has voted to stay one last night with our guest family. I am siting at our donated kitchen table listening to the buzz of a cordless drill upstairs. Mr. BunkBed, who seems to have a successful home-based business with his wife, is upstairs putting together two custom bunk beds for my girls. He not only offered to help us out, he also drove two hours to get here AND is assembling everything. When I say we are blessed, you have no idea. I hope I can explain it for you in the upcoming blog posts.

The local mattress store also helped us with our five full mattresses and king mattress set. I bought five nice pillows from him to thank him for helping and he impressed me again. He threw in a full body pillow. This small town and it's people are truly amazing. Generally, that's true for most small towns as I'm sure those of you living in such are aware.

I won't be able to thank every single person who has helped us (several anonymous gifts) but I am here to tell you that this family loves every one of you and I have no doubts that God will bless each and every one of you for your good deeds. 

~one humble Orange Jeep Dad (who is still searching for an Orange Jeep)