StretchyChurch

So we made it to California in one piece! Let me give you a run-down of everything that happened in the past week.

Wednesday, September 12 – The packers arrived and packed up our house. That night, we took Micah to Chuck E. Cheese because we knew this was gonna be a rough week for him.

Thursday, September 13 – The moving truck arrived, and by the end of the day our house in Union was 99.5% empty. In the evening, I ended up going to The Lube one more time with Ryan and Micah (and I gotta tell you, Micah has never been as good at a restaurant as he was that night—he sat there pleasantly and ate his food calmly for about 45 minutes!). After The Lube, Ryan, Micah, and I went to Bruster’s for some ice cream—I’ve never seen Micah with that much ice cream on his face. That night we spent our first night in the La Quinta Inn in Florence, Kentucky.

Friday, September 14 – An exhausting day! Dropped Micah off at school in the morning and then rented a Rug Doctor from Kroger. Then I headed over to the house to mow the lawn and trim the yard. Had lunch with D.G. and Aaron one last time at Potbelly in Kenwood, Ohio, after which D.G. followed me to the car transportation terminal. I dropped off Robin’s car to ship it to San Diego and got a ride back to Florence with D.G. Then I headed back to the house where I carpet cleaned the whole house while Robin mopped the floors and kept Micah from using Macy as a trampoline. We finally finished at about 10:00 p.m. Like I said…an exhausting day…

Saturday, September 15 – I said to good-bye to my 1996 Nissan Sentra. I think I’m really gonna miss that car—it served me well for seven years! Had lunch with the family from Union Pres. that bought the car. After lunch, we headed back to the house one last time for the very final touch-ups to cleaning the house. Also, handed off our lawn-mower, weed-whacker, leaf-blower, and other yard stuff. At around 3pm we got on the road with another family from Union Pres. who gave us a ride to Indianapolis. Stayed at the Quality Inn near the Indianapolis Airport.

Sunday, September 16 – A loooooong morning. We woke up at about 4:15 and started getting dressed and ready for our journey. Got to the airport at 5:30 and in the air by 7:00 a.m. The most stressful part of the trip was having to lug around 4 suitcases, 2 car seats, 1 garment bag, 3 carry-ons, 1 stroller, and 2 small children. But we made it! And once we were on the plane we could breathe a little easier. The coolest part of the trip was getting off the plane in L.A. (y’know… huge metropolitan Los Angeles) and running into some friends from our time at Glenkirk Church. We had just gotten off the plane and suddenly I heard Robin say, “Oh, my gosh!” and there she was hugging someone. It was our friend Chrissy and her husband Chris. They said they saw us, but at first all they noticed was Macy, saying to each other what a cute baby she was (who can blame them?!). Then they noticed how much stuff we were carrying around and felt sorry for us. Then they saw our faces and said, “Oh, my gosh! That’s Markus and Robin!” Anyway, what a great way to be welcomed back to California. My brother, Jonathan, picked us up from the airport. We had In ‘n Out for lunch and then spent the evening with Robin’s folks.

And there you go! We are now officially once again residents of the great state of California!

Finally, one final bit of good news. The Presbytery of San Diego voted me in on Tuesday afternoon! The final hurdle has been jumped and I am officially a member of the Presbytery of San Diego. Mission accomplished!

Except that now the real work begins….