Ninja Mom

The Lord had dropped answers in my lap, and I was grateful.

We spent the weekend translating 20 pages of house rental contracts, marking things we were uncertain of, and waiting to hear back from my friend.

She called to let me know that everything looked legit and good. There were a few points that she suggested I could ask about. But overall things were normal.

She even went so far as to ask a student of hers who worked at a real estate office to look over it.

Still we prayed. “Lord, we see this as a great opportunity and even as a need for our family. But if this is not your will, we will be content to stay.”

Because of impending departure, the contract needed to be signed within the next few days, they were unwilling to wait until my return and completion of quarantine.

The “hurdles” along the marathon path now needed to be jumped.

So on Monday I began notifying schools of our plans to move (though only a few hundred feet away) requesting paperwork I knew they would need, and the change of contact for the next few weeks as I would be out of country, and with a deep breath, bought tickets for Thursday.

On Tuesday, we prayed and went downtown to sign contracts and then immediately went to get my covid test, pick up kids and continue to make arrangements. I also had waited until things were finalized before talking to my dear neighbor. As I let her know of her plans, I cried at the thought of moving even a few hundred feet away.

In the five years as neighbors sharing a wall, we’d really come to count on each other. She got quite teary as well, though she was happy for us, and was more than eager to assist our family with anything we needed while I was away.

On Wednesday, I had to go sign papers to close the contract on our current apartment. Meanwhile my husband began the painstaking process of contracting a moving company— one of which visited that day to give us an outrageous quote.

I packed bags, ordered supplies I anticipated bringing back to be delivered while I flew, marveling the whole time that I would be on a plane the next day. And then spent my evening holding my kiddos.

Thursday morning, I got teary as I sent my kids to school. We went to go take measurements at our new house to figure out where we were going to put things.

We made our way back to grab my luggage and my neighbor drove my baby and me to the train station while my husband went on bike.

As she pulled away leaving us at the station to begin heading to the airport, I realized I ought to put my daughter’s residence card in my wallet next to mine.

As I pulled out the holder to retrieve her card, I snapped it open to discover it wasn’t there…

Or anywhere else amongst our documents…