We are finally getting settled in. We drove from Saturday the 11th to Wednesday the 15th, man what a long drive! We stopped at Palmyra on the way to see the Sacred Grove, that was neat. Driving with Logan was harder than I thought it would be, poor guy got really uncomfortable sitting in the carseat for so long! He is doing better now though. He is growing up so fast, smiling and cooing now, I LOVE that!
Lucy is doing well too. She is getting used to living here and sleeping in her bunk bed, that we finally got up! She still can't grasp what New York is. We told her for so long that we were going to New York, and now whenever we see a park or play place she says, "I want to go to New York," and points to it . She is way better with Logan now, she knows to be careful and loves to give him hugs and kisses and hold him. She is also our little parrot now, she pretty much copies whatever we say. And she is quite the social butterfly. If we are at the store or for a walk she just yells "Hi" to anyone we see, it's cute. She gets smarter everyday.
It was quite an adventure getting here though, oh boy. We were very lucky that Lucy flew down with Cory's parents, with her it would have taken a month to get here, he he.
The drive was long and we stayed in the cheapest hotels we could find on the way. In most of them we were really careful what we touched . We did stop at Palmyra, N.Y. on the way and saw the Sacred Grove, that was a nice break. Then we finally made it to Albany, N.Y. When we got into the city we drove through a really ghetto part. It's like you see in the movies, tall apts really close together with scarey people sitting on the steps or in crowds and homeless people pushing grocery carts, bars on the windows, garbage in the gutters, etc. You get my drift?
Cory and I started to get really nervous and were saying, "what the heck are we doing?" I was sitting there saying, "oh my gosh, holy cow, oh my gosh, holy cow." Yeah, it was pretty scary. Plus, it was the evening, around 6:30 p.m. here (we are two hours ahead). I will have to send you some pictures when I get some. We finally found our apartment, it wasn't too far from that part I just mentioned. I had no idea what to expect because we were relying solely on the advice from people in the LDS branch down here (I met some girls in the branch via phone and email that I trusted and was in contact with while searching for a place). I had looked at some pictures via email that the girls had taken for me, so I kind of had an idea. I didn't know it didn't have ceiling lights, I guess that's the way they remodeled in the 70's, but I knew it would be small, which it was, and hot, because there is no a/c, which it was. At least there was w/d hookups!!! Which is one of the reasons I went with this place.
When we got there we were pretty discouraged. I cried. We were doubting our decision to move to this apt and even this city. Our landlord did leave us a little gift, a bottle of wine, it was a nice gesture even though we don't drink. We didn't have any of our stuff yet, it was coming on a semi-truck, so we went and found a hotel. We were really worried about living in Albany. It seemed so scary and we wanted to live in a safe place with our children. We decided to say a prayer. I have a hard time deciphering between my feelings or the spirit and so in the prayer I asked that someone else outside our little family be inspired and help us in this big decision. About 10 minutes after the prayer, the phone rang. It was the branch president. He called to see how we were and if we were in Albany yet. I told him we were and I told him our situation. He reassured me that we were in a safe neighborhood and that we would be okay. He also offered his home to us if we needed a place to stay if we decided to not live here. OUR PRAYER WAS ANSWERED! Another testimony of prayer! The Lord does hear us and knows what we need! So we got our answer and decided to stay in the apartment.
We did have another problem. Upon arriving at our apartment, we realized that the semi-truck was not going to fit through the streets where our apartment was. We had to rent a U-haul and transfer all our stuff from the semi to the U-Haul and then from the U-Haul to the Apt. We were blessed to have four missionaries, the branch president, the Semi driver, and Cory's parents help us. It was a hassle, but we got it done. We also got to see Lucy again Thursday the 16th, she flew with Cory's parents. They were supposed to get there Wednesday night but they missed their connecting flight and had to book another, could anything else go wrong?
Our apartment is a couple of blocks from Cory's school, so he can walk, so that is good. Parking is an issue here, so it's good we live close so he can walk, and I can have the car. People just park on one side of the street, most streets are one way streets, and since the houses are skinny, tall, close together, and have two or three tenants, the parking spaces are few. Sometimes you have to park a block or two away and walk to your apt. We have been able to park pretty close to the front of our apt most of the time though, so I can't really complain. It's really busy at different parts of the day so you just get to know that. There is a bar two houses down from us and a car repair shop across the street. The bar is pretty low key though.
The apartment is pretty small, about 680 Square feet. We didn't even bring all of our stuff, and we were still pretty tight. We bought a little shed and put it out back, we have a small dirt backyard. We locked the shed and didn't put anything too valuable in it because the crime is higher down here. The backyard is nice to have, we have some tall trees giving us shade and there are always squirrels, that's fun for Lucy. The front door opens right onto the sidewalk, so we don't have a front yard. Unpacking was a huge pain! We had to buy some shelves and storage bins and put our bed on risers to fit all of our stuff and make this place livable.
After a week of organizing and cleaning, this place now feels more like home. The day after we moved in we went to a BBQ with some members in the branch at the branch presidents house. That was really fun. Then on Sunday we went to church. The chapel is just an old house made into a meeting house. It is a small and cozy branch. It will be fun. The only really really sad thing is that Lucy has NO kids her age. There are some babies and then a 5 year old and an 8 year old. That is the one sad thing about our move, Lucy loves kids. It will all work out though because we will be going to the park often and I am going to see if I can set up a play group from another ward like once a week or something, we'll see. Lucy and I will just become really good buds!
The branch is nice. There are two families that live near us, one a block away and one about three blocks away. One couple has a little girl that is 8 months old and her name is Lucy too! The other couple is pregnant and due any week now with a girl. We went to the park with them on Sunday and then to one of their houses, it was fun. Lucy played with their cat and she loves their little Lucy too. These two couples were the ones who found the apt for us and took pictures. One even made us dinner the first night. They are awesome! All I can say is thank goodness for the Church! It is truly a divine and inspired organization!!!
Last night we were tired of organizing and cleaning, etc. so we decided to go for a walk. We just live a block from the Empire State Plaza and so decided to walk there and look for the park someone told us was there. We heard loud music coming from there too and so decided to go and check it out. There was a concert going on. It was free fair with a concert, it was neat. This will be a good experience for us, we are excited. We live close to some pretty neat things. The Lord loves us and has blessed us!!!
The moral of this story is:
God loves us and answers our prayers!!!
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