StevenLaura

First full day in a new town. Daunting. Overwhelming. Feelings of isolation. Or that's how it was last time. Where do you shop? What are the good grocery stores? Where's the Target? ...

Today was different, and we feel blessed.
We went to church at the one church where we knew we'd know people.
We were greeted by the three people we knew during the coffee hour. A guy from S's new department, and the parents of a friend from NC. Then we were greeted by a handful of other interesting people, two of whom had connections not only to NC, but to the town we had just moved from! A chemistry prof at S's new school who got his PhD from S's school, and a woman who had gone to high school in our old town!

The parents of our friend from NC invited us to lunch. They were our gracious hosts for almost THREE hours! (Three VERY pleasant hours!) They gave us advice on everything from where to shop for groceries to where the best toddler playground was, to who was a good pediatrician/OBGYN. Delightful. They also gave us some insight into this new "Dutch" world we are entering. I explained that, I knew from growing up what Scandinavian-American cultural norms were, but had no idea what Dutch-American norms might be. They filled me in. I learned that there's a difference between WESTERN Michigan Dutch and other Dutch. I learned how to tell where in the Netherlands a person's family was from, just by their last name. I learned that, historically, Sunday sabbaths were kept very strictly, and one might offend one's neighbor by mowing on a Sunday. Never go grocery shopping on Sunday, either.

Then, to our house! We signed our lease and took a look at our new abode. It is just as pretty as I imagined. Our landlords are very nice people. They had our house in a cleaner condition than I expected, bemoaning when they noticed bits of dirt on the outside of the house that they'd overlooked. They BUILT US a half-door that goes at the top of the stairs to the basement, so that light could still go down the basement stairs while E could not.

When they took off, we started unloading the meager possessions we had in the car with us(cleaning supplies, my mandolin, etc.). It took about 20 minutes (mostly because E wanted to explore the yard, so only one of us could unload the car), and in those 20 minutes we met three sets of neighbors. THREE! They came to greet us, and all seem quite nice. The family across the street has a toddler almost E's age. The neighbor to our left, while weeding her lawn, told us she was on vacation for the week, so she was available to help us with "anything we needed" as we moved in. The neighbor to our right told us all about how he loved the Carolinas, especially the outerbanks.

E LOVES the echo-y house, the piano that we're "babysitting" for the owners, and the fenced in backyard.
S loves the foosball table that we are also "babysitting" as well as the reclining chair and the dart board.
I love it all. The raspberries and rhubarb plant have a special place in my heart, though. As do the planters on the front window, filled with beautiful flowers.

This is not like the last time we moved.

I feel truely blessed. Exhausted,* emotional,** but blessed.





*exhausted -- thanks in part to travel, but in larger part to the gang of motorcyclist who decided to party outside our hotel window last night from 10 pm to 4:30 am.
** emotional -- duh! I'm pregnant and have been worn to the bone, emotionally, with all this moving!