It’s done.  Well, almost.  Our beds are still not made as the movers lost our parts box…I’ve heard this happens often as movers don’t want to assemble furniture after unloading it all day.  I wish I knew that.  We would have taken that box with us.  Not only are our mattresses floor mats, we lost the home pod, and the stands to the TV’s.  Some bookcases didn’t survive, including the large one that held most of our books, furniture was ripped, and our Ethiopian coffee pot was dropped on the floor cracking the handle clean off and chipping the stand of it’s ethnic paint.  I know, we signed up for this.  Yet it still feels sad and invasive…seeing all your clothes and linens thrown on the floor, game boxes smashed due to riff raff being unceremoniously dumped on top, and having the house you just cleaned to get ready for it to become a home left with heaps of dirt, box dust, and heavy shoe prints scattered like hooved prints in a rodeo ring.  Barrett and I just embraced after they left.  Too shocked to cry.

Thankfully our kids were having a blast with my folks and my brother and his family while all of this was playing out.  This is the first move we have had where family was close and offered to help.  Not only did they watch the kids while the movers became dump truck hands, they housed us the month we were homeless.  My kids were able to play with cousins, sit on Pepere’s lap, watch Wheel of Fortune with their Grammy, and swim at the community pool my brother belongs too.  They had sleep overs, played in a creek, watched swim meets, hiked, and even got to go to a local VBS.

The unexpected wait also enabled Barrett to join us on a Revolutionary War trip up to Rhode Island and Boston.  We stayed with my oldest brother and family and they showed us the first black only regiment that fought hard in the war, what an impact Nathanael Greene had not only in Rhode Island, but the rest of the war, and traced the movements of the battle of Rhode Island, a lost yet strategic battle.  Then we went to Newport on the 4^th of July and listened to the reading of the Declaration of Independence on the steps of the Colonial House.  The crowd cheered as he read all the ways the King proved to be a tyrant of a leader thus rendering the only logical verdict, Independence.  Then he read the names of the signers and what colony they represented.  Groups of vacationers cheered when the name of their colony was represented, it was super impactful.  Then they rolled out the last four cannons remaining from Paul Revere’s forge.  We all jumped and covered our ears as they blasted a 21 cannon salute.  After it was over, we walked over and asked the militia men all about the canons and placed our hands on Paul Reveres signet.  It was truly incredible.

The next day we walked the freedom trail in Boston going to where the massacre and tea party took place, the Old North Church, Bunker Hill, Revere’s house, Faneuil Hall, the commons, and Cheers.  We ate pastries at Modern and Mike’s bakeries, listened to a Ukulele band, and Ronnie volunteered for a street performer.  We marveled at how much we fit in.

We finished the tour with a stop at Plymouth to experience Plymouth plantation, rock, and the Mayflower.  The history that my kids and I studied this year came alive in front of our eyes as we walked the footsteps of the brave pilgrims that sailed across the land to worship God the way the bible told them and the rebels that boldly stood up to tyranny to not only become independent from England, but to unite the many individual colonies into one country based on Judeo Christian values.  It is a trip we will not soon forget.

As Barrett and I dutifully depiled our games, clothing, and books, we were reminded by my sister-in-law that it is just stuff.  Eventually the house will be put together, the beds will be assembled, and the dirt will be wiped clean.  Our house will become a home, games will be played, and the dirt will come again…this time from the back door after fun was had.  We did not want a month of being homeless, but it ended up becoming the thing that made our summer superb.  The time with family, memories made, and bonds forged cannot be destroyed by careless hands.  They last forever.

My parents dropped off the kids and this time, the embraces were moving.