The Roemke Review: The Move

Here are a few pics from our big move. Even though Jim and I moved five times in the first four-and-a-half years of our marriage, it's never easy. And this move had challenges we had never dealt with before: we had never moved in the winter, and we had never moved with kids. And it was a relatively quick move too. Jim announced that he had accepted the call on January 6, his last Sunday at Good Shepherd was January 27, and we moved to Wisconsin on January 31. Whew! And we had never packed up a two-story house before, so there was a lot to do. By the grace of God, we got it all done. Throwing a major wrench into the works was that Jim got really sick right in the middle of the move. I had to take him to the ER on our first day here in Wisconsin, where we found out he had Influenza A. Bummer. That meant that he was pretty much out of commission for the hardest part of the move (unpacking the PODS) and for about a week after. Thank goodness Mom was here to help us! I have no idea what I would have done without her. She took all of these pics because I was in no frame of mind to be taking any pictures whatsoever.

The car packed to the gills. I had the girls and the fish, Jim had the bird, and Mom had the cat. They all traveled really well.

The girls in their jammies on our first night in our new house. It was a long day; the drive to from Michigan to Wisconsin was very long, thanks to white-out conditions along the Michigan lakeshore. They were glad to be here and settled in for the night.

Such lovey little girls.

Thinking about how much fun they will have in that backyard when winter is over.

There was no tv or internet, and the girls had brought only a few toys with them, so we played "Go Fish" and "Old Maid" card games.

We felt very welcomed. Among the things given to us in the first three days: two couches, a starter for my dad's pick-up (which happened to go out the day after we moved), a house full of area rugs, two large boxes of pantry supplies, gift cards to the grocery store and Taco Bell, two tubs of delicious chili, crackers, chocolate chip/M&M cookies, two tubs of potato bacon soup, salad, dressing, and a large loaf of homemade bread. We continued to have meals delivered every day for the first week. That was so helpful.

Unloading the PODS. They didn't arrive for 5 days after we did. We kind of "camped out" while we waited for them. We slept on air mattresses (loaned to us by the Mitteers, thank you!), and some church members brought over an old couch that they weren't using any more. That, and a table and chairs borrowed from the church's fellowship hall, were the only furniture we had for those very long 5 days.

Unlike the gradual loading of the PODS when we were packing in Michigan, the unloading happened all at once. We were drowning in boxes after the first POD was unloaded, so we decided to take a few days before unloading the second one.