Sunday, July 27, 2008

U-hauls, pizzas, and bits of grace

It has been a crazy couple of days. At the beginning of the week Jon and I enjoyed a wonderful celebration of our two year anniversary (which I plan on writing more about when I can post some pictures). Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were super relaxing and served as a perfect opportunity to enjoy spending time together. I can say looking back that over those days my soul felt revived...however I am now running on only a couple hours of sleep and I feel like death warmed over. Ah well, I guess that is just one of the perils of moving. Yes today was our moving day and it was made so much easier by the generous sacrifices of some dear friends from church. We greatly appreciate all of you who were able to make it out on a sunny summer day to move all of our crap! We could not have done it without you!!

As of right now our new apartment is hidden beneath boxes (mostly comprised of books from Jon's vast library) but I'm beginning to see glimmers of what will be. Our bedroom seems a lot bigger than our old one. I noticed the difference even more when I discovered that my wonderful husband had made the bed and cleared the room of clutter while I had gone out to run an errand. He knows that in he midst of chaos I need one place to go where I feel some semblance of order, plus I don't sleep well when the bedroom is a hot mess. Thanks honey!

We were finally able to crawl into bed around 4:30pm or so and I think we both struggled to sleep for any prolonged amount of time (we only have blinds hanging over our windows right now which make blocking out any sunlight virtually impossible). In the midst of my constant tossing and turning I do remember waking up around 7:30pm to the sound of children laughing and yelling in what seemed like a strange language...I thought that maybe those noises sounded so foreign because my body was completely exhausted. After laying there a few more minutes trying to discern what was taking place outside our bedroom I turned over in bed and saw my husband looking at me with glazed eyes. We stared at each other for a few seconds and then Jon exerted a long sigh. Poor thing. After a few more minutes of the children jabbering away Jon, in his witty humor (which is even funnier when you are running on a hour or so of sleep) quoted a line from one of our favorite shows, "Habanadah!"

Here is a little explanation:

Ray Barone: That's the restaurant where the crazy old Chinese lady yells at you while you're leaving, right?
Debra Barone: You know what she's yelling, right?
Ray Barone: Yeah, "habanadah!"
Debra Barone: She's saying, "Have a nice day."
Ray Barone: Oh. [pause]
Ray Barone: Well, maybe she isn't crazy.

So there I lay in bed completely exhausted, with the jibber-jabbering of little Chinese children ringing in my ears. The humor of the situation was too much and before I knew it I was laughing out loud. Looking back, I think the Lord gave us both a little extra grace today because with the stress of moving and our lack of sleep...He knew we needed it.

Well, I'm at work and it's 3:20am...I'm still awake, which is a good thing. We'll see what happens when 8:00am rolls around but for now the memories of the afternoon are small encouragements that bring a smile to my face. So to sum up our day here are some blessings that God gave us in the midst of a stressful and sleep deprived move:

1. We had friends give up their Saturday morning to help us out and then enjoyed some fellowship time over Domino's pizza before parting ways. (On a side note nothing was broken during the move thanks to Stephanie and Jennifer's superior packing abilities. Thanks ladies!)

2. Jon and I jumped in the pool before heading to bed (we saw some colorful people at the pool and God reminded me of the multiple evangelistic opportunities we will have at our new place and I can't wait.)

3. Despite my husband's exhaustion he went out of his way to clean up our bedroom and make a little retreat for us away from all of the clutter.

4. We woke up to some Chinese children chattering away and had a good laugh.

God's grace has been more than sufficient for us!!

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