We Are Alive..

It's been a long month...but 800+ miles we have finally arrived in Alexandria, VA. This past Monday we picked up our 22 foot Penske moving truck and packed it as full as possible...yep, we filled the entire truck...it's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over the years (and even after throwing away A LOT of stuff, we still had A LOT of stuff). Tuesday we spent the day saying good-bye (or see you later) to friends and ending the night with a dinner at Ray's parents with friends and family joining us. We pulled away around 8pm Tuesday night to embark on a very long 13.5 hour drive (Ray drove the entire way while his brother Craig and I attempted to sleep and eat and fight...). We pulled into a friends' house in Dumfries, VA around 9:30am on Wednesday morning to take our pick-up truck off of the trailer, rest for a little, and finish our drive of 45 more minutes into Alexandria.

We met our WONDERFUL landlords on Wednesday around lunch time to receive our keys and sign our lease and then the fun began. We unpacked the whole truck and began to set up house on Wednesday. It was a really long day, but God managed to give us the grace and energy to make it thru the day. Thursday we dropped Ray's brother off at the Reagan National Airport to head back to Florida and headed back to the house to finish unpacking and organizing.

It's really been great so far. God has really blessed us with the place we are living in right now...it's absolutely beautiful and it is so much more than we could have ever hoped or dreamed of. The neighborhood that we are living in is great...we've met all of our surrounding neighbors (who have been very generous) as well as Mr. Max who is the neighborhood cat (he's already been inside our house to check things out and I have bought treats to bribe him to be my friend...). Ray won't really appreciate this much, but everyone has asked us if we have kids or a dog...and of course our response is no to both...without fail the response we get back is..."Well you better get one or the other or both"...EVERYONE is the neighborhood seriously has kids or a dog. And when I say EVERYONE...that's what I mean. It's a truly fabulous neighborhood and we really hope that our stay here is long.

I have lots of pictures, but I have been unable to find the cable that connects my camera to my computer (it's in an unpacked box somewhere...). As soon as I find a cable or get a new one I will get our pictures posted.

Please be praying for us as we continue to get settled in and things with my job really get into full swing. We have a lot coming up with the church...meetings, dinners, outreaches and so much more as we are less than 2 months out from our first service on Sept. 9th.

Keep checking the blog because there will be lots more to come (we have no TV, so is there a better way to spend my time in the evenings than blogging?...Nope, don't think so...)