A First Step in the Journey (Sharon)

Well, I guess it is time to get this started. Several of you have mentioned that you really wished we would blog this trip, so I have had it on my 'to do' list for quite some time. But the demands of getting out of town were pretty intense, so I have not been able to start it till now. The last two weeks are probably the most demanding weeks I have ever lived through. Fortunately many of you were praying for us too, and we definitely felt your prayers. We were able to just work through all the things that needed to be done. I believe (at this point) we got all of them done, and we only left the house five hours later than we thought, though we ended up not leaving town till the next morning.

The last week was pretty insane. We were living at the house, but our stuff was in the trailer, for the most part. The hard wood floor was down, and the painting was done, so I didn't want the kids running around in the house much, so they sort of hung out on their air mattresses that were blown up and laying on the dining room floor. They played computer games, and watched movies, and occasionally went over to the park. It was a pretty hot week, so they didn't have much energy anyway, and they were pretty tired from the high activity of Campmeeting the week before. Meanwhile I was 'tying up loose ends'. Selling the last few furniture items on Craig's list, getting left over items delivered to the right people, overseeing the various contractors that were doing work on the house (landscaping, hard wood, general contracting, etc) cleaning, and getting the trailer ready to roll. We just sort of worked through the week. But by Tuesday evening, when Mayahna tore a two inch hole in the wallpaper in the bathroom, I realized we needed to have a different plan for where the kids would be. So we arranged for them to be at Greg and Lisa's all day on Thursday, while Annie and I finished up at the house. Then we also ended up, at the very last minute, having them go to Sonny and Jan's for an afternoon on Wednesday. The trailer was at the 'shop' getting the bike hitch installed, so they couldn't be in the trailer, and there was something going on at the house, with a contractor, that made me uncomfortable leaving them there. Around noon, Sonny and Jan were at the house, finishing up some of the landscaping, and so I asked if the kids could spend the afternoon with them, while Annie and I went to our art class. (we took a watercolor class this last week, from Annie's art teacher, and REALLY enjoyed it!! I have always wanted to learn to watercolor, and it was a little piece of sanity in the middle of a very crazy week!) I am SOOOOOOOO grateful for friends who are willing to help out. There is NOOOOOOO way I could have made it through last week without the help of several friends. Lisa Sloop, Lori and Frank, Sonny and Jan, Lisa and Greg Davis, Patricia and Jarrod, Russell, David, Brenda M., and many others. God has blessed all of us with a super supportive group of awesome friends. We could not have made it through last week without them, and the prayers and emotional support of many others too.

We have had quite a journey over the last few months, really starting back on the fall, when we realized our need to work on getting rid of the debt we ran up when Lon was last laid off. We had no idea at the time, what huge changes this journey would bring in our lives, but it has been clear, every step of the way, that God's hand is in what is happening in our lives. There are times, when in our human shortsightedness, we get a tiny bit panicked, but when we take the time to stop and think about how God has been guiding us, we have been able to re-focus our attention on His providence (PROVIDE-ence) and sit back and watch Him lead us on an amazing path.

One example of this is the finances for the trip. About two weeks ago, we began to realize that the budget was going to run pretty tight. All of our contractors needed to be paid, and we had to make a deposit on the new house, and we needed money for the trip, and Lon was going to be taking two weeks off. It was looking MORE than tight... There were a few hours of panic on my part. But I kept reminding myself of the guidance God had provided so far, and that He was not going to leave us stranded in Nebraska with no money for gas. At some point, very close to when I was getting ready to actually pull out from the house, Lon called and told me that everything was going to be OK. When he had calculated the budget he had 'overlooked' one of his paychecks. There would actually be two checks waiting for us when we arrived in Alabama, not one. So we bumped out several of our payments, and will have plenty of money for the trip now. God is so good, He didn't even have to come up with the money for us this time. I think the whole thing was just another opportunity to exercise our faith muscles.

Another example is the bike hitch. It has been a pretty crazy process getting a hitch installed on the back of the trailer, so that we can put a bike rack back there. There have been several failed attempts and wrong parts ordered, and other wrong parts delivered, and appointments met by me, or by Lon, and parts are not there, etc etc. A real comedy (not) of errors. We had been mentioning to people that they might want to take their business elsewhere, and not deal with this particular shop. We ended up eating our words when I went in to pay for the whole thing which easily could have run close to $500 by the time the gal doing the install spent nearly six hours installing it!! We were still in the 'we are running very tight on funds' mode, and I was frankly, not sure there would be money in the bank to cover the check I was going to need to write – hoping something would sell on Craig's List to cover it. When I went in to pick it up, and pay, they would not let me pay. Not even for the labor. The part supplier had messed around with them enough that they were going to demand that the part be provided free of charge, and they were just going to eat it on the labor and not let me pay, because of all the hassle. I stood there, just feeling so blessed by God. I tipped the gal who was doing the install, because it was 6:30 when I went in to get it, she was still not done, (and didn't finish for another hour and a half,) and usually gets off at 3:30!!! I gave her a GOOD sized tip!! What a blessing!! So, if I said to you, some time last week, that doing business with the U-Haul in Vancouver is a bad idea – forget about it, they treated us VERY well!! They are very wonderful people to work with (they really were VERY nice about it all- just a comedy of repeated errors- and they recognized it and made good in the end). What a blessing.

So Thursday afternoon found Annie and I getting last minute stuff done at the house, running last minute errands, and doing our one last art class, while Sarah and the three little ones hung out at Davis's. (Emma was at camp this week) We had pulled an all nighter the night before, getting the last bit of cleaning done. I had slept for all of two hours. The plan was to pull out by 6:00 in the evening, so we could arrive in Yakima early enough to put air beds on my sister's floor and sleep for the night there. When we arrived at art class, I was just too tired to paint, so Annie painted and I laid down on the teacher's couch and slept. When I woke up I was rested just enough to realize that I was absolutely CRAZY to think that I could drive three hours to Yakima that night. So I called Davis's and asked if we could just sleep there for the night, and leave from there in the morning. What a relief that was. Annie and I switched gears from 'we have SO much to do in SO little time' to 'ok, lets just work through this and get it done'. It was a much more pleasant process. We finally finished up at around 9:00. The house looks amazing. Patricia brought over a bunch of stuff to stage it a bit, and the yard looks so good, and the front door has a fresh coat of paint, and it is just downright CUTE. We are hoping it will sell quickly. We drove up to Davis's, and I managed to get a few hours of sleep there. We got up at 4:15 and I put the kids in the truck and we got on our way at 4:45. Greg said later that when he woke up at 6, and realized we were gone, he was AMAZED to realize that the Canaday clan could actually be so quiet!!!

The trip was NOT uneventful. The trailer was very squirrelly and I was quite tense the whole way. Twice it fishtailed severely and one of those times I was not sure I would re-gain control. I was using both lanes, and thankfully there were no other cars around, just the semi that I had just passed and he dropped way back when he saw me having trouble. I was praying out loud for God's help, and I'm pretty sure the girls were praying too. We did re-gain control (He did) and I called Lon to have him look up what I could do to improve things. Apparently too much of the load was behind the axles in the trailer, so I stopped in The Dalles and shifted some heavy items to the front of the trailer and checked tire pressure, and we were back on the road. I'm pretty sure that I checked the sway bars at that point, but now, thinking back, I'm not entirely sure I checked both of them. We kept our speed down below 60 and plodded on up to Yakima for a WONDERFUL visit with my sister and her husband. They made us breakfast and we played Bocce Ball, and enjoyed their amazing massage chair. They sent us on our way with a bag full of goodies for the trip (puzzles, books, CD's – one of which was the very thing I had wanted to buy, but had not, the week before, when we were thinking that funds were going to be so tight - isn't God amazing?) and a pocket full of happy memories!! They are such an amazing aunt and uncle to the kids, what a blessing. We just really enjoyed our time with them. The kids are looking forward to spending time with them again, when we get back up in to the NW every summer. Annie and Mark have a Bocce Ball challenge going on... now we are going to have to buy Bocce balls, so that she can practice up!!

We headed to Walla Walla around 1:00. With one quick stop in Tri-Cities for gas and a short nap, and arrived safely in Walla Walla around 5:00. When we were unloading the things we would need for bed, etc. Sarah came in the house at one point and said, “Mommy, did you hook both of the sway bars up when we left?” Of course I did. But one of them was now completely disconnected. It had apparently slid forward enough that the end of the bar slipped out, and pushed the bracket back, bending it in the process. It totally would have contributed to the problems we had in the gorge, or it may have happend then, though, I don't think so. Honestly, I can not figure out when it would have popped out, but it is clear to me that there were angel wings involved in our safe arrival here, and prayers were definitely part of it too...

I'm exhausted, just from one day of travel (and all that led up to it, too), and am so grateful for Lon's parents being able to feed us, and help us sort out the sway bar situation, and just generally help me think through things that I was simply too tired to think through... Sabbath rest is refreshing me, even as I type and I know that tomorrow's trip on up to camp will be much more simple and I am looking forward to a week of relaxation and recuperation there. Lon will join us there on Wednesday and we will be together again, as a complete family, and not have any separations ahead in the foreseeable future!! What a blessing that will be!! I promise the future entries will not be so long, I am hoping that the girls and I can all blog on a daily basis from here on in. Maybe not every day during camp, though I could use that time to catch you up on the story so far... but certainly, once we actually hit the road there will be stories to tell every day... anyway, as Lon always says at the end of his blog, 'thanks for listening'!