Moving to Connecticut

We found out about an internship opportunity right before Christmas. Dave knew he had to do an internship with his current fellowship/stipend (Just what they call his job or how he gets paid). So he sent an email to a contact he had at Pratt & Whitney asking if they had any intern spots available. They responded within a day and said they were all full, but send your CV (resume) anyway and we'll see if we can work anything out. Within that same week, P&W said they would take him. He got his offer letter within a couple weeks and plans began. 

I was seven months pregnant when all of this was happening, so I was trying to stay focused on what needed to be done for the baby then I would start thinking about planning for the move. I really didn't want to move with a newborn again, but as soon as he told me they were making a spot for him, I prayed about it that night and got a firm confirmation that we will be going and 

its where we needed to be. 

We couldn't really break our lease in Atlanta because we would pay out the same amount of money if we broke the lease early than if we just kept it until August. Also, I really didn't want to pack up the entire house just for 3 months and unpack it again, all with a new baby. So we decided to keep our townhome in Atlanta and just checked with our landlord to make sure he was okay with the place being empty for a few months. He was just fine with it so we moved forward. 

About a month before we were getting ready to pack up, I got a phone call from someone in Texas who was moving to Atlanta. She is a member of our church and said her husband just finished grad school and got a teaching position at Georgia Tech. They were looking for short term housing for the summer while they look for a home to buy. She had called our bishop, then the bishop sent her to the primary president (who happens to be one of my best friends), and she said we might be willing to sublet our townhome for the summer. My friend called me right after and said, sorry I just gave someone your number so they could live in your house, I'm not sure why I thought of you guys. After I talked to the lady that needed a place to stay, I just needed to contact our landlord to see if he was okay with a family staying there. He said that's fine as long you trust them and you are willing to take the risk if they damage anything. He also asked if they were Mormon, I said yes, and he said it was absolutely fine for them to stay. Pretty funny!

 It is pretty amazing that this all worked out. Seriously, Heavenly Father is amazing and this experience alone made me realize how much he is aware of each of us and our needs. 

We decided to just camp out for the summer and be as minimalistic as possible. We thought about just renting furniture but quickly decided that was too expensive. So we went with the classy route of hitching a uhaul trailer to our van. We brought a bed for everyone, a futon, and kitchen gear. Then also clothes, bedding, and the essentials for daily life. So we packed our family of 5 into a van and uhaul trailer and drove up to Connecticut.

We had kind of a late start to get on the road. We were up until 2 am the night before packing, then got up at 7 am to load the trailer....and 5 1/2 hours later we were ready to go. I think we underestimated how much needed to be done. I didn't think it would take that long to load a tiny trailer, but with three little kids who also needed attending to, there was plenty of distractions and interruptions while we were loading things up. 

The trip started out terribly SLOW! The trailer said to only go 55 mph, so between that and Atlanta traffic we had only gone 32 miles the first hour. So slowly we increased our speed to see how the trailer would do and it seemed fine between 65-70 mph so we settled in at that. We made it to DC that night by 1:30 am and luckily we all passed out and slept through the night. Even Savannah did great, only getting up once to eat. We all slept until about 9 am, had breakfast, then we were on our way by 11:30. We tried to make it to a 1 pm sacrament meeting in Hershey PA, but ended up being about 20 minutes late, so we settled for the children's primary CD in the car and having the boys tell us their favorite scripture story. The best part, we traveled all day in our Sunday clothes. Finally, we made it to Hartford after only stopping for gas. 

We had dinner at Cracker Barrel then went to our hotel. We again all crashed hard that night. Its so funny how everyone gets so tired from sitting in the car all day. We couldn't move into our apartment until 2:30 on Monday so we took our time checking out of the hotel, then headed to a mall to hang out, play, and have lunch.

hanging out at the hotel

Finally time to move in. Our apartment is on the third floor and it was 90 degrees that day. I stayed in the apartment with the kids and tried to clean as Dave brought stuff in. He did it all by himself in just under two hours. Pretty impressive. I only had to help him with our mattress. 

Trevor and Logan would help occasionally but once we found the box of toys they were occupied and content to stay inside. 

The boys literally have their mattresses on the floor. I think they love it because they can jump back and forth between the beds. For the most part we haven't missed most of our stuff. Its kind of nice to less to take care of in some sense. 

I love this quote. I feel like I need this on my fridge as a daily reminder that my life is certainly not what I had planned. But I am so grateful for what I have learned on my journey, the people I have met, and the places I have been. I love my little family and the happiness they bring. Sometimes our life is boring, hard, and inconvenient, but we are all happy. We have had so many great adventures and looking forward to more. God is good and I know he loves me.