We Didn't Plan For This!



Girls Walking on Lauderdale Beach

 Ft. Lauderdale, here we come! The day after Christmas, we packed up most of the stuff we had brought to my parents- and left Clearwater heading South to the Ft. Lauderdale area. We had high expectations.
We arrived at Garden Plaza, the place Lupe was working- and they had a lovely apartment on the 4th floor all set up and waiting for us. It was very spacious, with a full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, and TONS of storage space that I wish I still had. Not to mention the computer room, pool, hot tub, workout room, and the dining rooms. It was beautiful, and Tenly and Gianna quickly made friends with all of the Senior Residents. They might as well have been celebrities the way they were recognized and loved on by every one of them.

In our Temporary Apartment

As pleasant as it was, we were really beginning to crave our own space, especially Lupe. It was difficult for him to be at the same place he worked at 24/7- he began finding every reason for us to run to the store, go to the park/library- anywhere but there!
We found our apartment and began all the steps needed to move in, I'm sure I do not need to emphasize how expensive it is- deposit, processing fee, electric on, water on, cable/Internet on- then we had that one more thing- getting all of our stuff here from Texas.

Taking Cookies to the Seniors

Someone had mentioned to us that it was pretty inexpensive to have a  moving company move the stuff for us since it was in storage. So, we began looking into that- at first it seemed PERFECT! Until....we realized we had been dealing with a "broker"- which, we learned, is not a good thing! Two days before our stuff was suppose to leave Texas our wonderful broker (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?), God Bless Them, sold our contract to another company- who suddenly doubled our price- that was NOT going to work for us! Our resources were beyond limited, and extra money is one thing we just didn't have- every penny  had a name. This is all happening while I'm in Clearwater, at my parents, getting the rest of our stuff (and in the ER with Tenly whose head was very swollen, and had a fever and sore throat). We chose to begin looking for another company, we found another company, who gave us a good price- it was still higher than the original price- but it was good. BUT, it was going to be a couple of weeks until we could get it all here and we were already moving in- so, we adapted- we had brought the girls beds, all of our clothes/shoes with us, and Lupe and I slept on a air mattress (UGH!). Lupe went to a couple yard sales and bought some plastic lawn chairs and tables so we could have something, besides the floor, to sit on.



See the yard chair in the corner, lol?



Our friends, Richard and Catherine, helps us coordinate this whole thing- we couldn't have done it without them and will be forever grateful! It took a couple of days longer to get everything because of all of the crazy ice and snow in Houston during that time- but finally the truck got there. Then we received the next phone call from Richard- apparently I had given the wrong measurements of our storage unit- and our price was about to be more than doubled again! We were getting close to desperate, so we just agreed to their price (which apparently was pretty good) and began scraping pennies together to make sure we would have the money when our things arrived.

We were ELATED when our stuff finally arrived, I fell in love with my bed all over again! I even managed to get this apartment completely unpacked and completely set up in less than a week- and it felt so good!!

That was a very trying few weeks for us. I remember driving back with my dad from Clearwater, in the middle of my crying because we were going a few more weeks without our stuff- my phone rang. It was my new friend, Mire, she's my little spunky dancing friend from Australia- in just  a few months she has also become a dear encouraging friend. We had only known each other a few weeks ten and she followed her prompting to call me. I cried and cried, and she loved me and reassured me of God's Faithfulness. Perfect Timing!

Gia's Bday- day after our things arrived!

We again, watched God's Faithfulness demonstrated, how much stuff we really don't need to get by, we also learned a lot about the moving business and never to use a broker, and much much more! As we are staring at another financial hurdle right now- we know, that we know, that we know- God IS Faithful and has NEVER forsaken us.