Update before we get internet #2 :)

The girls and I wound up staying another night in the hotel.  We checked out of the larger room this morning and kept the smaller one.  That wound up being a very good decision.

We got up at dark o' clock so we could check out and pick up a U-Haul truck.  From the truck rental place we went to our storage unit and loaded up (in the rain) until it was time to go sign our lease for our townhome. 

sigh.  This is where the day went from dark and wet to ugly.

The lady we needed to speak with didn't show up to work on time.  She was a good 15-20 minutes late. (she lives in the same housing complex in which she works) And there is no amount of talking that anyone could do that would convince me that she was not hungover.  Interesting start to the day.

So, we head over to the house because they like to do a final walk through before signing papers.   Great! Let's go!

Walk up to the door... there is a hole where a deadbolt should be.  The knob is an indoor knob - no lock.  Ooook?  Perhaps that was just overlooked, because when we looked at the place last week we knew it was being remodeled and we knew that they were in there just yesterday cleaning up and getting it ready for us.

Or so we though.

I'll spare you all of the details because SWEET MERCY.  Let me tell you a few though.  No lock on front door.  No lock on back door.  Back door is a sliding door and it isn't hung properly.  Last tenant stuffed aluminum foil in it to "seal" the crack off from the weather.  Most of the foil has since been removed.  When the wind blows you get a better breeze than when you stand in front of a fan.  The entire house was covered in a layer of dust and grime from the remodeling process.  There was a huge tube style tv in the upstairs bedroom.  This one struck me as funny because when we looked at the place last week the tv was on the back porch.  Perhaps when someone was supposed to be cleaning they decided to watch tv instead? 

So we finished our walk through.  There was NO WAY that place was fit to be lived in.  And yet there we were, checked out of our hotel room (leaving us only 1 room that sleeps 4)  with a U-Haul ready to be unloaded. 

We wound up going to Bob Evans while the townhome complex made some phone calls to get our long list of heck no's taken care of.  The things that we needed the maintnece guys for were mostly little things, only a few things needing their immediate attention.  The thing we needed most was someone to CLEAN so we could start moving boxes.  So, they asked for 2 hours to get that going. 

We enjoyed our Bob Evans and returned 2 hours later... to find a cleaning lady just starting to clean.  One other person had done some paint touch up.  That was it. 

THAT WAS IT. 

I was about this close to losing it. 

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur.  I think I just tried to block it all out.  But we did get stuff unloaded.  The house did get cleaned.  One of the doors locks.  The long list of things they need to take care of is slightly shorter, but not by much.  I've discovered things that will need to be added to it tomorrow.

The girls and I are staying at the hotel tonight.  We enjoyed one last night of HGTV.  The boys are at the house.  Nehemiah is bummed that he can't get online with his Kindle.  They will be sleeping on bare mattresses because Roger can't find the tote with the sheets.  They have blankets though.  Bonus, they are upstairs, away from the door half stuffed with aluminum foil. 

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I think some people are wondering what on earth we are doing here.  It doesn't sound like things are going well and perhaps we made a bad decision. 

Things aren't going as we had hoped.  Certainly, we had hoped things would just fall into place and we'd find a house and a job and hold hands while skipping around a field with pretty fall leaves gently flitting to the ground. 

However, we are still believing that this is where we are supposed to be.  We love this town.   Why are things going the way they are?  Well, I think some of it is just life.  I think some of it is the enemy trying to take away what God is giving us here.  If this is where God wants us to be (and after years of praying about moving here, we feel like this was a God-driven move, not just a 'ready for a change of pace' move) (Then again maybe God just wanted us to have a change of pace!) :)  then this is where the devil DOESN'T want us to be. 

We're on to him though.  And while we've had some crazy frustrations over the past... while, we aren't about to stop fighting for this now.  We are here.  We like it here and we are going to make this work. 

It hasn't all been crazy times either.  We've visited the libraries a few times, which the kids LOVE.  We went bowling. (I won both games!)  We shopped at the Goodwill.  (I saw one of you roll your eyes.  Yes I did.  ;)  It's a nice Goodwill! Half the kids needed long sleeves the minute we got here.  GW for the save.)  We went swimming a few times.  The kids, Roger, and I have all laughed and played and had fun.  We've probably gained a few pounds from all of the Bob Evans trips too. 

Even though I would have preferred things to play out different than what they have, I'm still glad that we are here.  Even though our house is looking like a box store after a tornado - and we don't even have all of our stuff there yet - the kids all agree that it feels like home already.  (uh, wait a minute.  I'm not sure if they were slamming my house keeping abilities or just truly feeling at home.)

So, while my posts have been all about the drama, and there has certainly been drama to post about, it's not all bad all the time.  :)  Please do pray for us though.  We would be happy if the enemy would just back off.