Did you know the 23rd is NEXT WEEK?

...Cause somehow I had been overlooking that bit of information! I guess the double digit number of days (until today ~ NINE days to departure) had been throwing me off. Somehow I had been thinking that we still had another week of "cushion time."

The good news is that while I worked myself into sheer exhaustion yesterday, the house is essentially set up. Not just "liveable," but actually ready for company to come by. Pretty impressive for being here less than 72 hours, don't you think?

Of course being set up so well didn't happen just on our own efforts! We've been blessed with so many stepping in to help get us settled! My sweet cousin Jordan (known by Kylie as "the other one boy") traded in his freshman fall break from Cincinnati Bible College to help our moving efforts. How many 18 year old guys do you know that would drive 8 hours on days "off" to do that? Then you have our moms and my sister who, despite how upset they are about us leaving Charlotte, drove up for the day to assist in making the house a home. Add to that several friends on this end who have PLENTY of things going on in their lives ~ Andrea and Kevin are getting ready to go on a last sailing adventure before their baby arrives, Shannon has three kids and the crazy scheduled life that entails, and Stephen and C.C. are getting ready to go on the same flight to China with us ~ and we are more grateful than words can express!

The best part is that Saturday night (the very first night mind you), Kylie went to bed without any difficulty in her own room. She never even asked to sleep with us. She did look for her shelf to put her milk on ~ and has convinced her daddy that he needs to rig something up for her ~ but she went right to sleep and slept through the night! I was slightly concerned about her transition, but God took care of that one for us!

Then last night a friend of Shannon's (whom I've met only once) wanted to help welcome us to the neighborhood by bringing us dinner. Wow, talk about feeling at home!

Of course I still have moments ~ take tonight during the time our Bible study was meeting... It's hard to think about life just "going on" without you. But that sadness is tempered by the way Kylie's face has lit up each evening when Ian gets home from work. She starts yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" and takes off running from whatever she is doing to "attack hug" him. Then we have a few moments of "family love" (which looks like a bear hug with Kylie in the middle and lots of kisses all around). It's a nice change after eight weeks to have dinner as a family each night!

I'm still tired, but not as flat exhausted as I was last night. For those of you who have been praying, know that I felt the peace that only God can grant today! It was a turning point in my stress level and I'm so grateful! (more on that soon)

A few pictures for the grandmas that sorta relate to this post...

Lottie was dedicated at her church Sunday, so we went to church with her family (gotta start "church shopping"). Pretty cute that both Shannon and I dressed our girls in pink, black and white ~ no, we didn't plan it...

After church they had a party for family and invited us to join. The girls fed their faces on some Pei Wei honey seared chicken (YUM-O!) and then were off to the races!

Monday night Shannon came over with Glenda to bring our dinner. We were in the kitchen talking when we heard the girls giggling and Kylie saying, "I pick you up Lottie!" Needless to say I grabbed the camera when I heard that one. The good news is that Caleb is almost exactly the same size as Lottie, so Kylie may well be able to pick up her so called "baby" brother. That is if he'll let her...

Kylie has also seen Darby ~ she was here Saturday with her parents on move in day. They were cute as could be pushing around a baby stroller that was missing two wheels. Over the course of the afternoon, they brought the stroller to each adult and explained, "wheels, back!" to try and let us know that something was wrong. Poor girls, they just couldn't accept that Fisher Price would have neglected to put in the rear axle... Sadly I have no pictures to document their tag team efforts ~ it would seem that I was a bit distracted and forgot to pick up the camera...