Sunday, July 20, 2008

We Did It!

The song from Dora keeps running through my head because indeed, We Did It! In the eleventh hour, I wondered if we could actually do it. Not as if we weren't wanting to, but is this actually possible to do type of thing. We had moments where we sat down for a moments rest and said to each other, there is NO WAY we are going to be able to do this.


I'm not sure what will happen if we don't do it, but at this point it is looking impossible. We had very few snags and we are grateful for that. Really, the biggest one being that the people who were buying all of our largest, heaviest and bulkiest pieces of furniture simply did not show up to follow through with our transaction. They said they would, and we planned on it given we had much conversation with them about it ahead of time, and then.......nothing. When did we realized we needed to make another plan? Oh, about four o'clock the day before we had to be out of the house!!!!!!! Have you ever had to find a moving truck and a storage space in an hour? We have. We don't recommend it.

Then we realized it wasn't just the truck and space, we needed actual bodies to move this big bulky stuff. Again, made a plan and waited for help to arrive and did other things in the meantime. When did we realize that help was not arriving? Oh, about eight o'clock that night. ACK! Have you ever moved large pieces of furniture *and* a pool table in the dark and rain with teenagers? We have. We don't recommend it. But we pushed forward still.

We realized at midnight that this was in fact possible to do.....if we didn't sleep at all. Oh, I'm just kidding. We did sleep. We just had to get up at 4 am. And for those of you who have seen me first thing in the morning, no, it wasn't pretty. At all.

The most incredible thing happened during all of this though. I realized that all of my fears of can we do "this", meaning live in this tight of quarters and this tight of a woven together *so* intimately lifestyle, started to fade. We did it meant just that-*we* did it. Teens that normally preferred to text on their phone or skateboard with friends jumped in and helped us do it. And without attitude. The next day as we pulled away from the house and grinned and said we did it, we meant the we more than the did it part. We were amazed at us.

It was a great sign of encouragement that even when it looks impossible, if we pull together, we can do it. Now today, we still are grinning and high-fiving each other that we did it. First sign of the reality that we did it, is that we all are battered and bruised as is typical of moving. Even the youngest of us is limping around like a war hero today. But we have that shared horror story, the first of our shared stories in this particular part of our life journeys. And I'm remembering why we wanted to do this in the first place. We wanted to go and see the world together. And the world is where ever we are at that moment. It's not so much the "go", but the "we" that means something to me. WE did it! Hooray!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

I found your blog on the FOTR website and I've been reading it since about the first post. I'm so excited for you that you would think I'm going along with you!

My husband and I have made the decision to put our ducks in a row to become a FOTR, also, but we have quite some catching up to do to even be where you are right now.

Reading your blog is exciting and motivating to me. I can't wait to get out there! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with strangers out here in the blogosphere!

Show Us The World said...

Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement!!!!! I look forward to seeing your blog when you put it up on FOTR, and hearing when you are officially out there too!