Are We There Yet?

I forgot to mention something very important that happened Sunday night. Our GPS guided us through Annandale to the home of our friends. At the very moment we pulled into their driveway and ended our cross-country journey of eleven days, Sarah asked innocently, from the back seat, for the VERY first time: “Are we there yet?”

That’s actually a fair question today, as we’re still in limbo. This morning I woke up early and drove into Alexandria to pick up the keys to our apartment from our friend Lori (who picked them up from the apartment office on Friday for us). I actually parked at the apartment and then walked to the seminary, just to see what the walk across the campus of Episcopal High School was like. Answer: HOT! Before 8:00 a.m., it was well over 80 degrees and very humid. I was sweating like a pig when I finally got to Lori’s office. While I was there, the Comcast guy called, so I needed to book it back to the apartment to meet him. It's about 15-20 minutes' walk between the two.

Wi-fi installed, I headed back to Annandale to hang out with my girls. We hit the grocery store for a few basic necessities, and Target for some apartment stuff. Then we went back to the apartment so I could show it to them. Sarah got very excited in the big, empty space; she started dashing around, avoiding my camera … and that gave me a few really great shots like this one.

We walked around the apartment complex a bit; the temperature had crept into the high 90s, and Sarah’s now-familiar cry of “It’s too hot!” began to be almost as unbearable as the heat. That’s when we met Hester and Andy and their kids, Neeley and Zander. Finally, Sarah had playmates! Later in the afternoon, we met the Del Priore family as well, whom we’d discovered on Facebook some time ago, and Sarah took to playing with their daughter, who will also be in first grade at Sarah’s school. We met many other people, too, and hopefully, nobody will quiz us on their names quite yet.

In addition to being taken in by the crowd of new seminary families right away, the Hoskinses’ neighborhood kids have also turned out in force. One family has baked us banana bread! And on our return from Alexandria this evening, Sarah immediately joined with an impromptu bunch of kids who were jumping back and forth between two large wading pools. Sarah was the only one without a bathing suit, but she didn’t need it. Christy was cooking dinner in the meantime, and when Sarah and I came home, Sarah burst out, “I’m completely SOAKED! And that was SO … MUCH … FUN!!!!” Our journey so far has been marked by many graceful moments of enthusiasm just like this one.

We have good news: the movers will arrive on Wednesday! This means they’ll have honored their agreement by showing up on the very last day they said they might, and we won’t feel like un-recommending them or writing bad reviews … yet. First we'll see how they've done with all our things!