I am alive . . .

Well- we made it and I am still alive! I will post more later about the move itself and our trip across the country. It was LONG and hard to say the least, but luckily no major problems occurred. So- I just wanted to give a quick update. We moved in on August 23rd- with lots of help from our new ward, and have been trying to get unpacked since then. It seems like it took so much effort to pack our stuff up and to get it here (over 2500 miles of driving!)- that once we got here I felt like I hit a wall! Now I have to unpack it all? It was a stressful and exhausting first week here trying to unpack, find the hardware for the kids bunk beds which we misplaced, find a few necesities to purchase second hand such as a washing machine and a lawn mower, register the kids for school and Lillian for pre-school, and start the process of changing over to be Michigan residents (even having to find a new bank). Now we are feeling more settled in, school has started and things are starting to fall into place. Jon has started at the Residency program and likes it so far, though is frustrated because the state of Michigan is taking a really long time to issue his limited license. He can't actually be contracted and put on the pay-roll until this happens- so he is really just shadowing and going to their lectures. He is so ready to get back into things! It is sad to realize that every time he has to go through licencing or something like that, it will always take longer because they will have to investigate what happened in Yakima with his program there. The hospital here doesn't anticipate there being a problem, it just has to go through more red tape which is frustrating. Soon . . . we just have to be patient and continue to really pinch our pennies and pray everything will work out!

I really do love Michigan- with it's lush forest and green everywhere and a huge lake just down the road. It is also so nice to live in a metropolitan area with grocery stores and every kind of shopping you can think of in every direction- not very far away. Not that I have money to spend right now, though! Ha Ha. I love the church here so far- they have been so welcoming and I feel like I have instant friends. There are other Residents in our ward (from a couple of different hospitals in the area) which understand what we have gone through with the craziness of Residency. I just feel so strongly this is where we are needed right now, so although I miss our friends and family out west terribly, I am VERY grateful and happy to be here.

Pictures in front of our house here:



More to come!