welcomed home

saturday morning dan left for Florida to take his long-studied-for test...a few hours later the kids and i began our long-anticipated four day move! with boxes o-plenty from a friend, we took on the task of having everything we owned packed, moved and unpacked before dan returned...we had just four days! it was to be our "hurray you are done, good job daddy you rock and welcome to our new home!" surprise!! a more than daunting task for one mom and four small blessings to take on, for sure! but i quickly learned how "not alone" i was! more friends than could be numbered showed up with food, water, painting supplies, trucks, dollies and strong arms to help me take on this lofty four day goal!

our old garage quickly overflowed with everything we owned, and within twenty four hours we spent our first night in our new home...and in our own beds!

but these amazing friends did not stop there! monday morning our new home was overflowing with a hoard of sweet mommas tackling the huge task of packing, moving, unpacking and organizing my kitchen! they brought all their kids and two sweet babysitters and they did it all! even rearranging furniture in rooms!

but wait, that was just the morning crew!!! the mid-day brought with it a wonderful friend who is passionate (my soul mate!) about organizing!!!! she took over my kitchen, bathroom and linen cubbards and within two hours had me completely organized!! (plus my amazing neighbor worked tirelessly making trip after trip in my minivan shlepping odds and ends left behind at my old place! then she detailed my van!!)

then...(that's right, there's more!) that night three sweet friends brought me yummy Thai food, cleaned my old place and helped me hang pictures!!!!! (i know, right!?!)

(well look at that! seems you can fit four kids into one room after all!)

tuesday (yup, even tuesday!) two more dear friends arrived to help me finish painting and organizing my garage! (one cool dad even cleaned out the garage first and then delivered and set up(!!) two awesome shelving units! my dream!)

i didn't find my camera again until after it was all over...so these are pics of their finished work!

where did we move to?, you ask??? oh! now there is one amazing story if ever i lived one! a sweet woman named Vicki emailed me about a month ago and asked if i needed a place to live (not joking!). she decided we were not "too many" for her one toilet home...and she even welcomed our two dogs and asked us to name the rental amount! (no kidding!)

the love that was poured out on us overwhelms my heart, even now as i replay it all in my mind. we are surrounded by a simply incredible community of friends! truly, these folks transformed this place! (i felt like i was on extreme make-over!

we are just a few blocks from our old place (and even got to take our precious neighbors with us! hee hee! just teasing! but they come visit all the time!)

dan arrived home just before midnight on tuesday exhausted from a grueling two day test...to a new home! it was awesome!

(our dear SF friends even gave us this sweet little house warming plant! isn't it cute!?) thank you EVERYONE for making it possible! what an amazing family we have here in LA! you are God's tangible love to us all! we feel so welcomed home!