NOTE: I wrote this second part about our move also on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 but then we lost our internet capabilities and I am just now getting it posted. For chronological posting, read the blog below first.
I love different houses, I love decorating, I love “nesting”…I’m not so crazy about moving. I had told Mandy that I had moved 18 times in my life. I was wrong. I had forgotten several moves when I was a baby and a couple during my college years but after writing down each move, and including the upcoming move at the end of this month, I will have moved 24 times. That’s too many times for someone who yearns to be “planted”.
When I had talked about this with Mandy & Jim while we were Stateside, I said then that I wondered if Sarai ever cried out to Abram…”I just want to settle somewhere! I want to put down roots!” If so, I think I understand a little of what she might have felt. My hat is off to any woman who had or has to live a Bedouin lifestyle. Maybe God keeps moving me so that when that day comes that I get to my “mansion” in heaven, I’ll know I am finally home and I can settle in for good.
By Wednesday afternoon, Move #23 was just a few hours away. After Felix left the office and I got most of my crying out of my system for the time being, Jim and I sat and discussed all of our options. We came to the conclusion that moving early really was the “best” choice of all the lousy ones that we had before us.
Our first call was to David and Sherah, the couple whose condo we will be moving into the end of this month. We wanted David to contact the landlord at Quinta Allyson (the gated complex where they live) and ask if they had a unit available. He told us to come right over and we could go talk to the landlord. When we got there, the landlord wasn’t there but his sister was and she said there were two empty units that had just come available. David had already told her that we would be moving in to their unit at the end of the month and so she said that she would allow us to just go ahead and rent a place for the same month’s rent that our monthly rent will be in the new place. Typically, they charge several hundred dollars more per month for renting a place for any time frame less than a year. She told us to come back the next day at noon and they would have the unit cleaned and ready to go and we could sign the contract.
The next phone call was to Susanna to see if she would accompany us to act as a translator for our visit with Doña Sara – our landlady. That was a visit none of us were looking forward to making. Susanna has dealt with her in the past and I think she was dreading it as much as we were. And, the visit was almost as unpleasant as I had feared. Doña Sara immediately was very unhappy that we were moving and let us know that she was going to keep every penny of our last month’s rent and our deposit. She said it was a terrible time of year to try and rent the house and that she needed more time to do so. She felt we were being very inconsiderate even though we had explained why we were leaving on such short notice.
Her son, who is a Harvard educated lawyer and speaks English, was also at the meeting. He was sympathetic to our reasons for wanting to move but deferred to his mother at every turn. They both impressed upon us that if it was just the security issue that was prompting us to leave that they had friends who were government officials very high up in the government and that they could help us with protection. We thanked them but said that we thought that it was best that we go ahead and move. That’s the last thing we need at this point is to get involved in owing favors to someone in the government here.
Obviously, Doña Sara is used to getting her way and so she tried another tactic. She said she would drop the rent by $125 a month and we could use that money to help pay for 24 hour armed security but we would have to sign a contract to stay two more years. My “No” wasn’t just clear, it was adamantly clear. And even though I was very respectful when I said it, I’m sure that didn’t help our case any.
By the end of our meeting, Doña Sara would not allow us to have our last month’s rent back because we did not give her 30 days notice that we were leaving (which was true, reasons why aside) and our deposit was also hanging in the balance depending on how her “walk-through” of the house came out. She said that she would be at the house at 12:30 on Monday afternoon to do the final inspection. She stressed that in order to get our deposit back that the house must be in the same condition in was in when we moved in. We should have known this was a set-up statement. She has not been honest from the get-go. I was sick. We needed that money to help soften the blow of the upcoming move.
After the afternoon of meetings, we returned home to begin packing. Susanna came over for a couple of hours and she got my dishes and books packed up before she had to leave. I began packing all up our bedroom and office things while Jim started in the spare bedroom closet. We both were staying very focused on the tasks at hand and tried not to talk about what to us was the elephant in the room… our pets - Xander, our much-loved dog and our cats, Skits and Snoops.
Jim and I made the decision to not tell our families or friends what was happening. We knew they would only worry and we didn’t want to burden them with that. But I felt that we needed to let someone know so that night, I called Jackie, our Missions Director at our home church, First Baptist in Cassville. I knew we would be out of touch for the next few days and I also wanted someone to be praying protection not only for us, but for our employees as well. I explained the situation and she encouraged us saying that we were making the right decision in going ahead and moving. She let me share my concerns but continued to tell me that what we were doing was the right thing and then she prayed with us. I want you to know that was a cherished prayer. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like today without the prayers of godly people like Jackie Hendrix.
Xander sensed that something was wrong and he was very agitated and nervous, staying under my feet practically every step of the way. He knows he’s not supposed to be on the bed and he kept putting his front paws upon the bed and stretching the top half of his body across it. Telling him to get down did no good. I would have to stop what I was doing, walk over to the bed and physically lift him off. Normally, if I would have done that, he would have wanted to wrestle and play, but that night, he just wanted to be loved on. I don’t know how many tears covered his coat that night.
Thursday, we began packing again. Susanna returned mid-morning and we loaded up her car, our car and the borrowed pick-up of our friends in Ohio, Karen and Dwane and headed over to Quinta Allyson so that we could hand over a hefty sum of money and sign a year’s commitment to rent. The list of rules and regulations covers a full page but what I kept reminding myself was that it would be a safer place for us to live than where we were. When Rafael, our new landlord, spoke about having pets, I could feel a lump rise up in my throat. We then drove on over to our new “home” for the next month. It turns out that the unit is right next door to the one we will be moving in to so at least the next move won’t be far and won’t require so much packing and unpacking.
Jim and I spent the rest of the day Thursday filling action packers, suitcases, boxes and totes. We made several trips over to the new condo and by that night, we were beat. It didn’t seem like we were making much headway. Where, when, how and why did we get all that “stuff”??? I realized how imprinted we are with being Americans. We love our “stuff”…it brings us comfort and makes us feel secure. Moving to a smaller place which will not comfortably accommodate all that “stuff” is definitely going to force us to pare down some and that’s not a bad thing at all.
Doña Sara’s brother came by and tacked up a “For Rent” sign on the place. All the neighbors, on our street and behind us, were well aware that we were moving and the security guards in the neighborhood watched our comings and goings with great interest. We wondered if word would reach Eddie. That was our last night to sleep in the house. It was a fitful night. I wish I could say I slept well in the condo but I didn’t. My mind was too filled with things to think about.
Friday morning was clear and the view was stunning. I thanked God for allowing me to enjoy that beautiful view one more time from my favorite spot on the deck. Skits was rubbing against my leg and Xander was pawing at him trying to get him to play. It was a moment I wanted to last forever. My heart hurt every time I thought about not having them with me anymore. But there wasn’t time to dwell upon that for too long. It was the day to move the big “stuff”…all the furniture.
Felix took a vacation day from work so that he could join Freddy in helping us move. The boys worked like machines, stopping only to eat lunch. Friday night, when we were through moving for the day, it was decided that Felix would go ahead and take Xander home with him that night. None of us wanted to take the chance of Eddie coming by at night and possibly hurting him. I knew I couldn’t go say good-bye to him and I cried like a baby when Jim, Freddy and Felix left the condo to go pick Xander up to take him to his new home. It was a very sad night at our place.
Saturday came and Miguel, Freddy and Felix met us at the house. No one said anything about Eddie that morning but I am sure he crossed everyone’s mind at some point. Jim had to go take care of some business at CINAFE and I continued to pack things up while the boys loaded the car. Right after Jim left, he called telling me that he had seen Eddie next door at the neighbor’s house. He warned me to be careful and to tell the guys that he was next door. I did and from that point on, they wouldn’t let me out of their sight. I couldn’t even go downstairs to the basement without one of them coming with me. It was really quite touching that they were so committed to making sure I was going to be safe.
Evidently, Eddie must have had second thoughts about trying to rob what was obviously an almost empty house. He hung around for most of the day next door and then left right before the guys made their final trip for the day. It was almost an anticlimactic end to the day but not a disappointing one, that’s for sure. We don’t know if Eddie had planned on doing anything or not and I don’t suppose we will ever know. What we do know is that God protected us, our employees and our animals and that’s what mattered.
So, in summary. Doña Sara refunded our deposit but not our last month’s rent. Xander is now living with Felix and I have yet gotten to the point I can talk about him without crying. Skits and Snoops were left behind after much prayer and discussion. They started out as wild kitties and they retain much of that in their personalities. Snoops is a good hunter and Skits can hunt if he has to do so. They are best buddies and brothers – they need to be together and both are outdoor cats. They know their area and there are places for them to find shelter. We are gone most of the time during the day and neither would do well locked up in a condo all day without anyone here with them. I believe it was the right decision albeit a painful one. More tears. I do believe I have cried more in the last two and a half years here than I have in the previous two and a half decades. Maybe it’s because I’ve had to say so many good-byes since God called us to move here. I don’t know.
The temporary condo is serving us well or at least it has in the six days and nights we’ve been here. While it’s true that we don’t yet have internet or television and we’ve been taking cold showers every night (we finally got our hot water “widow makers” installed today), it does seem to be more peaceful here. We have amenities here we would never have had staying in the house. We had a downpour last night and there wasn’t one leak in any of the rooms! The stuff in the open part of the bodega got soaked but that was due to poor arranging, not a poor roof.
My stove still isn’t hooked up but Jim bought the necessary parts today so that may happen tomorrow and I do have just about everything unpacked thanks to late night and early morning hours. Jim went in to CINAFE and I stayed home to get laundry done and to keep unpacking. Margarita came today and cleaned the floors and helped me rearrange the bodega which was really helpful. We’re slowly settling in for as much settling as a person can do while knowing there is another move coming up in less than a month.
There are several things that have really hit home with me this last week. First and foremost is God’s provision for us and His protection over us.
We are also very thankful:
• to have gotten word of the planned robbery with enough time to avert what appeared to be imminent danger
• there are prayer warriors who were faithful to carry our concerns before the Lord for us
• that we were able to borrow Karen & Dwane’s pick-up truck
• that not only was there a place available for us to rent, but it is right next door to where we will be moving…which also enables us to give a month’s trial period to find out what we need to have and what we can get rid of here
• the condo complex appears to be a safe place to live with good neighbors, many of whom are here also serving in missions.
• Doña Sara returned our deposit…it’s not everything we had hoped for but it’s more than we thought she would do
• there are people who aren’t the type to say, “Call me if you need help,” but rather are the type who just show up and help…such a good lesson for us to learn ourselves
• God has placed so many wonderful Nicas in our lives…they far outnumber the few “bad eggs” we’ve encountered
I could go on and on with how God has blessed us…and I don’t think God would mind a bit…but I do think the blog would be even longer than usual so I will stop for now.
Someone asked me this past week if I was ready to move home. I’m assuming they meant back to the States. I have to say that at this moment, the only move I’m looking forward to making is to my Laura Ashley suite in the sky but I would imagine there will a few more earthly ones between now and then!
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