Part One -- How We Came toTexas

I thought I would write out our story of how we came to Texas.

End first: I (without hubby or ds13) drove seven of our eight children from Southern California to McKinney, Texas, taking five days to do so. I don't recommend traveling that far with one adult and seven children, even if two were 15 and 17. It just wasn't one bit fun. The scenery wasn't pretty, either. The poor baby... oh, the poor dear!

The Beginning: Sept. 7 we got notice that we had to move from our rental. Right away, we found that it would be next to impossible to find another house we could afford. That was one part of the trouble; the other part was that we got a 30-day notice. It's required by law in California to give 60 days' notice. I was due to have a baby in 51 days. Hmmm....

Our landlady said we could have until mid-December to move (six weeks postpartum). That was very nice of her, yes. But, where were we supposed to go? Rentals were scarce as it was. December was an even harder time to find one. We decided to look and look and look until about two weeks before my due date, and move before the baby came. If we couldn't find a place, we would wait for the baby and begin looking after he was born. Meanwhile, my midwife and friend told us about a house in Texas that was for rent. All those details fit with what we needed in a house. Trouble was, it was in Texas. We prayed for the Lord to open the doors He wanted us to walk through and close those He didn't. Texas was one big wide open door, from the first day.

I won't go into all the details of the open doors just now, but, believe me, it was obvious God was leading us to Texas.

We finally got moved out of our house in CA on Feb. 15 (yes, very much after Dec. 15, but we had reasons), and moved in with my mom for five days. The plan had been that we would leave asap but Michael couldn't go because he kept getting work so I went with seven of the children. Michael needed someone to stay to help him (and keep him company, being an extreme extrovert) so the 13 year-old stayed (he was actually 12 but his birthday came in March).

We talked at length about whether I should drive without my husband, 1500 miles away, to a place I had never been before, with seven children, one of which was a three month-old baby. I am not the type to do such a thing, and my mother was sure that I could never do it. I didn't want to prove her wrong, either! I had no desire to drive that far but we kept thinking that we would never get here if I didn't just set my face to the wind and go.

On February 21, we set out at 3:30 pm, having given up on the early start theory. We made it only 100 miles that first day, and slept in North Palm Springs that night. We stayed in Tuscon the next night, and in Van Horn, TX, the next, and Abilene the next. We hoped to drive 350 or more miles each day. Never happened. We spent 2.5 hours in Phoenix (don't ask), and the first day we traveled only a couple of hours. The baby didn't enjoy the trip one little bit, no no no. It was very stressful, even if the driving part had been peaceful, scenic, and leisurely. The entire event was far from pleasant, for many reasons. I guess I've painted a very bleak picture, haven't I?

We did have some funny moments, mostly in the motel room at night when we were scrambling to get to sleep so we could get up and get going. We never hit the road before 9:45 am, and that had to be OK. The best part of the entire thing was that I could call Michael any time I wanted and cry and moan and complain all I needed/wanted to do. That happened a few times.

We finally pulled into our driveway about 6 pm on Monday, February 25, via Fort Worth and Lake VeryHuge (which were not supposed to be on the way), ordered pizza, put everyone to bed, and I took a very long, very very hot BATH. We slept on the floor ( but I had an air mattress) until Friday night when three very nice families extended Christian (and Texas!) love and hospitality to us by unloading our two 28 ft. trailers and then putting together beds, the kitchen, and whatever else was needed for to function until my hubby could get here.

Part Two Coming Soon