It is difficult to plan and execute a move in an ordinary situation, when you pack up all your belongings and move from one place to another. But my mom already has a condo in WI, that is perfectly outfitted with everything a person needs. So this was a bit more challenging. The things we had to save were the things that my parents had brought to Phoenix originally, and also the mementos that were accumulated during the time there. And THEN we had to decide what went where: WI or TX, plus there were the items going to WA for Mireille (remember the desk??) So we had piles...everywhere! We had to clear places for Justin to sit, and ensure that he had nothing dangerous within reach, and his reach is getting farther every day!
Some moments were easier than others. Going through the pictures was one particularly hard time. It's so easy to wonder and doubt things that you once counted as true. I listened to my mom and we shared stories and cried together. It's truly a death. Like the "death" Randy and I felt when Justin was born. The death of our dreams, but also the creation of new ones. Neither is better, just different. I ached for her, knowing that I couldn't take away the pain, but that I could only listen and shoulder her grief when it was too much to bear alone. I fought my own emotions through the process. I did a lot of talking with God and asking for understanding. My list of questions for God when I get to heaven gets longer every day!
There were some crazy times too. One memory that I have etched in my head was preparing my mom's sewing machine table to be shipped. We took out the sewing machine and took off the legs and then I looked at Mommy Sharon (remember: 70-something years old?) and I said, "Do you think you can help me carry this upstairs?" I cannot believe those words came out of my mouth! Even now I shake my head at my stupidity! It was not a light table, and it was upstairs! To my credit, she did say, "Sure, if you carry the heavy end." (With the drawers) Okay, so we started up, and we made it around the first set of stairs and I was smashed against the wall, which has a large mirror and I said, "Okay, you have to keep moving." To which she replied, "I am trying!!" Somehow we tumbled up the last few stairs and she sort of fell up the last two and the sewing machine started falling on the backs of her legs (she had gone up facing forward) and I was envisioning myself crumbled at the bottom of the stairs under a pile of shards of mirror and covered with sewing notions. My mom came to the rescue and we managed to get the table set down. And that's where it stayed, at the top of the steps, until our muscles reformed from their jelly-like state. We got it out to the garage and it did get shipped without further incident. It did, somehow, leave a trail of safety pins wherever it went. (?)
I am so glad that God created our bodies to heal themselves. I am so covered in cuts, scrapes, and bruises, that if they had to be cut out, like we do with the bad spots of fruits, I am sure I would not have a leg left to stand on! I even have a bruise on my chest from that sewing table when it rested on me as we stumbled up the stairs. And my toe. How do you get a bruise on your toe? I know I didn't drop anything on it. I would have remembered that!
In the end, after 2 rounds of shipping we sent 40 boxes and pieces of furniture (total, not each!) totalling 1,750 pounds! It's oddly rewarding to have a scale confirm that, yes, that IS a heavy box! Of that total I lifted at least 1,000 pounds of that myself, SEVERAL TIMES! No gym for me last week. I finally had to stop and remind everyone that I still am just a girl and I cannot lift as much as my brother. I am very thankful that the truck we had help us haul everything to the shipper had a lift on the back so I didn't have to carry the desk one more time. It took Jerry, Mireille, and me to move it out of the house into the garage. The thought of lifting it again was not a pleasant one.
I didn't really think pictures of packing would be all that interesting, but there was time for a bit of entertainment. One thing we found while sorting was glasses. Lots of glasses: sunglasses, reading glasses, weird glasses, etc. So my sister took a couple of pictures with her phone and sent them to me.
I am glad I went and spent the time on Phoenix. I have some great memories there, even if I never really lived there. There is something about Phoenix that attracts lots of different people. I stil have family there, and friends, so I know we will be back. But for this trip, it was now time to go home!
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