We made it to VA

WE made it to Virginia exactly one week since we left last Saturday. It was quite an adventure traveling across the country with our 9 children! We are thankful to the Lord that our van made it with out any problems, and for the wonderful visits we had along the way.

We were blessed to be able to meet and visit with the Niesch family, who organized a benefit concert for us in Iowa, after they had learned about Reeces Rainbow. If you didn't read that story you can go to older posts and read about it...and be encouraged that God works in wonderful ways. The kids really enjoyed getting to play and run around with new friends, and we all enjoyed a home cooked meal. We were provided lodging at a local hotel by their friends which was a nice treat for us after being in sleeping bags at home for a week and a KOA the first night.

Then we drove through St. Louis and enjoyed meeting and staying with the Olmsteads, another RR family who adopted 2 girls last year when we adopted Sean. Once again we were blessed by a wonderful meal and good company... a short visit (as we had to leave early the next day) but we all really enjoyed it.

Our next stop was Indiana where we visited our good friends the Garlands who are like family to us...only problem was the kids didn't want to leave, and when their DAddy had to visit the ER (to get checked out due to palpitations) they were secretly glad they got to stay another day. Thankfully, everything checked out okay and the doctor thought it was due to overuse of his inhaler, combined with the stress of traveling. He is trying to lay off the inhaler, eat well, and take it easy and he has been feeling alot better. Please keep him in your prayers as we have to move lots of boxes here to get things in order. WE all really enjoyed our Indiana visit and got to meet up with some dear friends at the park while we were there.

Our drive into VA was probably the longest and hardest and we arrived late to a KOA that night. THe kids have done amazingly well I think with sleeping in so many new places, with all of us together...and they did so well with traveling. I don't think Aidan our baby cried one time during the traveling ...his big sister Haylee took great care him and Joshua. In fact, by later in the trip he would go right to sleep in his carseat when we put him in it and put a blanket on him. Our other big girl Naomi took good care of the little girls in the bag. Would you believe Sean never slept during the long drives...I finally decided to move him to the side (as he had been inbetween 2) and the last day he finally started napping again in the van--guess it was too much stimulation there. We didn't have much time at the KOAs we stopped out, but we decided to make the best of it and had a morning campfire and cooked hotdogs for breakfast...it wasn't that bad actually!

We arrived Saturday afternoon and were greeted by the Wood family who has so graciously allowed us to stay in their basement apartment while we look for a place to live here. It was so nice to have a dinner in the refridgerater to heat up...especially since the movers didn't put beds together or put boxes where they were labeled...there are boxes everywhere. WE have alot of work to do to get our small apartment livable...but we are making progress. We plan to keep as much boxed up as we can so the next move won't be as difficult to prepare for (and maybe get rid of some more stuff._