Greetings from a hotel room in upper state New York! By the time some people read this, we may already be settled in our Canadian apartment, ready to quarantine for the next two weeks.
Seriously, the last week was crazy: packing, cleaning, hugs from friends, play dates, last-minute changes of plans… I’m so thankful that God is constant. He is unchanging and we need some of that unchangingness in our lives right now.
As we reflect on our time in TN, we praise God for the sweet friends He has given us over the last several months. Drew and Summer, who have become friends-like-family. Our Thursday night life group and our missions life group, who both just adopted us in and loved us so well. Sam and Cathy, who chose to walk alongside us with grace, truth, and light. Jenn, who is one of those friends you feel like you’ve always known. Scott and Jolene, who just understood the “moving to Africa” craziness. It’s a blessing to have people we miss already, less than a week after saying bye.
BRB, crying.
Okay, so after packing and cleaning and loading and hugging and crying and gassing up and getting coffee, we headed north to PA.
We drove about 13 hours on Tuesday and we all felt it. So on Wednesday, we spent all day at the Hershey Park (thank you, Sam and Cathy!):
The kids went on some rides, we played in the water park, we ate “fair food,” we picked out a souvenir or two, and we all crashed hard that night. Hudson fell asleep at about 4:30pm on the way back to the hotel and didn’t wake up all the way again until about 4:40am.
Thursday, we were back on the road by 6:45am heading to New York. Our COVID tests were scheduled for 4:30pm, so we had to be here by then… And we rolled into town by 2:30pm! We found a grassy spot for the kids to run around before the tests and dinner. It felt good to get out of the car a little bit! And the view of Lake Champlain was beautiful!
Now, everything is in hand for us to head to the border Friday mid-morning. Phew. It’s been an adventure getting here, but we aren’t going it alone.
We’ll keep you posted, but Lord willing, tomorrow we can unofficially start our new roles as chaplains at Parole de Vie.
