Verds' Werds: One Week Down!

Our trip out to Arkansas was looooooooong... My mom drove with me and the babies, which made it much easier, and we stopped in Alabama at my grandmother's house. Our plan was to drive through the night while babies were sleeping so as to make the trip easier on them, but it didn't exactly turn out that way. Wednesday night we drove to my grandmother's house despite warnings of impending weather due to Hurricane Isaac. We landed around 3:30am, and were in bed by 4:30. My bright and chipper Silas was up and at 'em by 7:30, as usual. We planned to nap during the day on Thursday and head out Thursday night, but Isaac was looming ever nearer and stronger. That, combined with Mom's and my weariness from our 3 hours of sleep, caused us to rethink our trip and leave early Friday morning. We slept so well Thursday night, and were well rested and ready for the trek on Friday. We chose a course through Memphis to keep us out of Isaac's immediate path, which was a smart move, because we only hit one patch of intense rain - and THAT only lasted for about 15 minutes! The Lord definitely kept us safe that day. In total the trip took us 17 hours (that's just drive time), when it should have been about 11, but such is life when travelling with a 4 month old and a 2 year old! Jenyfer, my sister in law, saved the trip for us, though! She informed me just before I pulled out on Wednesday night that the reason Scarlett didn't like her pacifier is because it was too small! She gave me a sanitized pacifier that Heidi wasn't using, and - oh. my. word. - Scarlett was happy in the car for MOST of the trip! This is a far "cry" from the screaming that usually ensued the second I strapped her in.

When we got to Arkansas, we were greeted by my amazing hubbie AAAANNNNNDDD Jimmy and Sarah! They came out from Texas to help us settle in. Mom and Sarah helped me scrub and plan out the kitchen the first day. Our stuff is STILL not here from Georgia, so there was no moving-in to be done, but we got a lot of the cleaning taken care of! We also played with Jimmy and Sarah's remote control helicopters a lot, and played frisbee at a (rather desolate) state park nearby. It was so helpful for me to have the distraction of loved ones right away.

My first hard day wasn't until Tuesday after all the family was gone and David went back to work. I was alone in an empty house without even my rug to make the space feel homey. It didn't help that I felt ill. That evening we went on our family walk, and Silas said over and over, "Go home... go home... peas, Mommy, go home..." I cried and cried as we walked on. We got to the high school football field, our destination, and as soon as we entered the gates a couple approached us and started talking to us as if they'd known us their whole lives. We stood there for an hour or more chatting, and the woman played and played with Silas. We made our first friends, which eased the pain of missing home. God is so faithful.

Since then it's been getting steadily easier. I've realized that I'm going to have to live event to event for a little while. Last night we got a new TV stand off of Craigslist, so that was exciting; today the babies and I are going to visit David at his office for the first time, Saturday we're going to the Little Rock Farmers' Market (sooo exciting!), and Sunday we're trying out a new church!! With that list ahead of me I don't get as homesick. After a few weeks of looking forward to things I think I'll be settled in enough and it'll start to feel like home (especially after the movers get here!).

Tomorrow'll be one week since the babies and I have been here... honestly it doesn't feel like that long. I'm just so grateful to have my family all together.

Oh!! And Scarlett crawled for the first time on Sunday!! She took one tiny crawl forward and fell back onto her belly, but it was the cutest thing ever! I've been trying to get it on video ever since, but the little stinker won't do it again!! She's army crawling today for the first time since then, so I'll get some video of that, and perhaps she'll treat us all with some real crawling again soon!

Somehow we made the whole trip out here and subsequent day or so with Mom without a single picture of her!! So... when you see these pictures, be sure to imagine her face next to whoever is featured!!