Moving Out

We lived in this little home in Ithaca longer than we have ever lived anywhere else, 3 years and 3 months to be exact. You could definitely tell when we cleaned the baseboards and behind furniture, found cobwebs in the ceiling corners, etc. Yikes. I was a bit embarrassed to have a few of the RS sisters come over and help clean, but also SUPER grateful. 

After finalizing our move plans and buying plane tickets, we had about 3 weeks to get everything ready to move to a storage unit. As soon as we bought the tickets I was pretty anxious to get packing, but also didn't want to be living in boxes for longer than needed. So we just did little things here and there those first two weeks and then really hunkered down and did it all the last week. 

It was really nice that we were able to do most of the stuff while Shae was gone at school. Belen was as helpful as a 3 year old can be, taking things out of all the open boxes we were still working on, haha, including this umbrella that seemed to go in and out of a box about 20 times.

Last workout in this little gym. So many wonderful feelings about this place and the peace it brought me each (most) day(s) to start off my morning focusing on me before tackling the rest of life. So cheesy, but I grew so much in this little space that I really felt was mine. 

We have been talking about living in Indonesia for over a year now, but it wasn't until the kids saw our house empty that they really seemed to "get" it. They walked in to the house and said, "Wait, where is all of our stuff? Where is my bed?" and "Where are we going?!"

The apartment was small. I hated all the stairs we had to climb with my hands full of groceries and kids complaining about being too tired to climb the stairs. Carrying the laundry outside in the snow or rain to the column next to us wasn't my favorite. The paint was constantly chipping, leaving pretty good sized spots in the wall without paint. The dining room was carpeted which isn't ideal with little kids. But despite all of those things and more, that little space was HOME. 

I have so many wonderful memories of things that we did or that happened in that home, from birthday parties, friend gatherings, Joy School lessons, and our first family Christmas to Belen learning to walk and Shae being upgraded to a toddler bed that he was always falling out of. Then all the small things... the Family Home Evenings, Family Game nights, and Pizza Movie Nights. The bedtime march chant as we went off to bed and the many many bubble gum bubble gum games as we chose someone to say prayer. Playing on the balcony and watching all the beautiful birds that came our way. Going on nature walks through the path in the woods. Seeing the new playground be built. Shoveling two feet of snow out with a dust pan. Seeing Shae finally master pedals on a big boy bike and watching Belen go from no interest at all in her balance bike to racing down the street with it. Thank goodness for this blog that has all the small things recorded so I can look back through them all someday. This little apartment definitely taught me a lot about what it means to create a HOME. I'm so grateful for the things that I learned and the ways that I grew in that little house.

We had so many wonderful friends offer to feed us and help us clean and babysit those last weeks. We loved all of the sweet CES missionaries assigned to our branch, but especially this last one who fed us one evening our last week in Ithaca.

 I should have gotten more pictures with friends before we took off after church on Sunday, considering many of the friends will not be there anymore when return. We ended up leaving in a bit of a hurry after sacrament meeting (our original plan was to leave for my parents after the entire block), but Shae really wasn't feeling well, so we figured it would be better to be on our way. 

We were glad he was able to make it through sacrament meeting as Darin and I both got to share our testimonies one last time in our sweet branch. Many of the people we have known over the years are no longer there, but I loved serving in Relief Society and Darin in the branch presidency. We were constantly in awe of the examples of love and service that the members of this branch showed to us and to each other. 

Saying goodbye is always hard, but watching the kids say goodbye to their friends felt extra hard.

 So so thankful for this sweet lady and her husband for letting us crash at their house our final few nights in Ithaca. It only seemed fitting since we also stayed at their place when we first arrived in Ithaca and our first apartment fell through--back when they didn't even know us! We will miss them greatly.

While saying goodbye is hard, it definitely made it easier knowing that this would not be our final Ithaca goodbye. Friends, apartments, and our church congregation will change, but we are excited to still have a couple years left in this wonderful town.