Imagine me singing...this was so true for us last week! Last Thursday morning, we woke up with the knowledge that on Saturday, we would have to move out of our transit apartment, and we had no idea where we were moving. We also knew that we only had child care figured out through Friday, and although a wonderful mother of one of the girls in Meredith's preschool class had graciously offered to take care of Joel the following week if we needed help, I knew it wasn't a permanent solution to a problem that really, really needed a permanent solution!
On Friday morning, we woke up knowing where we would be living, and who would be taking care of Joel! Both of these pieces of information were, of course, major answers to prayer. The house we moved into last weekend is wonderful. It's about a ten minute walk to school, a five minute walk to two stores, and it is already starting to feel like a home. The landlord is an American man who is married to a Norwegian woman. They have four children, and are presently living in California, so the woman's parents are the people who will be acting as our landlords. The house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms (none of the other places we looked at had two bathrooms, so this is a huge deal), a nice little backyard, and a park that is practically right outside of our front door. We feel very blessed!
Last Thursday night, I received a text from the girl who had been babysitting Joel that week. She said that she'd talked to a friend of hers, Graciela, who was interested in watching Joel. She is taking the year off, and although she is going to be traveling to Australia after Christmas, we feel so fortunate that she has agreed to take care of Joel until then! She comes to our house, too, which makes things even more convenient. I'm getting spoiled, because I'm sure that come January, we will be taking Joel somewhere every morning, but for now, it's the perfect situation. Graciela is a lovely girl who speaks three languages...so maybe Joel will start speaking Italian or Spanish before he speaks much English! He loves her, too. He runs right to her in the mornings when she arrives, and he gives her hugs every day before she leaves. Needless to say, going to work was quite a bit easier this week than it had been the previous three weeks!
So, last Friday night, we found a take-away restaurant, ordered Sweet and Sour Pork for us, and hot dogs and fries for the kids (what a combo, I know!), went "home" to the transit apartment, gobbled our food, put the kids to bed, and packed up our things. By Sunday afternoon, we had unpacked almost everything, met Graciela, and were ready for the first "normal" week we would have since arriving in Stavanger. It's hard to believe that it's Friday night again, and we've been in our house for almost a week.
A day made a huge difference for us, and I'm so grateful for that. I think things are finally starting to fall into place here!
I'm so glad you've found a home! Joel could be trilingual! Woo hoo!
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