Moving out

My husband, Rupert and I had moved twice in less than one year. I still remember when we had transferred to Akron, OH three years ago to start residency training, we only had two suitcases with us and maybe five balikbayan boxes, containing our books, some wedding presents and clothes. Since we were just starting out, almost all of our furniture were bought from yard sales, secondhand stores, or from friends. A twenty dollar bill went a long way - we were able to fill our kitchen cabinets with dish sets, designed our living room with a pretty sturdy coffee table, and flanked our (secondhand) king-sized bed with really cheap night stands. We spray-painted our dull-colored dresser with bright clarinet red, went to flea markets to hunt for the perfect oil painting to hang in our dining area wall. We frequented Wal-Mart and Target to get some new DIY bookshelves and dining set. Probably the most expensive furniture we had was our couch set which we got from a nearby liquidator store. It was definitely lots of fun. Bargain-hunting quickly became one of the few hobbies that my husband and I share.

Moving to Yakima was a different experience altogether. What was previously two suitcases and five boxes that used to be all of our worldly belongings, gradually and unknowingly became a total of two suitcases... and forty five large boxes! Excluding furniture! It's amazing how much we had accumulated over the past three years and how we had thought we had needed most of these things. Still, since we were moving to roughly the same sized apartment, we decided to keep most of them but we had promised ourselves not to buy any more fixtures since we knew we probably would be moving again to a more permanent home. We kept that promise for the most part.

Now, we're moving again. And I'm hoping that we will stay put in one place for a long time. For the last (almost) 6 years that we've been married, the longest that we have stayed in one place was the three years in Akron. I'm hoping, and by God's grace I pray, that living in Silverdale will afford us some permanence and stability for many years to come. I would love the opportunity to get to know my neighbors and just to stay rooted.

I'm always sad and there's always a weird ache in my heart whenever we move. But, I'm excited too, thinking about the future, brimming with possibilities. This particular move is a lot different from our previous ones because it is the first time that we are both acutely aware of the hand of God at work in every decision we made. There were a lot of times that my husband and I would just look at each other and say "go for it" and surrender it to the Lord. We don't know what the future holds, but God does. That's truly enough for us.

(Photos: 1) and 2) Packing up our stuff in Yakima; 3) After the movers loaded our stuff, we were left with our lone $1 coffee table we got from a garage sale. We loved this coffee table, but decided to leave it there. That's Rupert relaxing; 4) South 89th Avenue Street Scene)