What a whirlwind of a week! Sunday after sharing at Dillon Mennonite, we hopped in the van, popped in a few Radio Theater cds of the Chronicles of Narnia and made our way east. Before long, we saw this familiar sign:
We were sort of racing time to attend the high school graduation party for the daughter of Nathan's cousin, Dan. Waiting for us at the front door was the best welcoming party! Nonna and Papa!
The party was in honor of this beautiful girl, who also happens to be called "Ellie", which was almost too much for our girl.
She had one of my all-time favorite ideas for a guestbook: a globe!
On Tuesday Mom and Dad took our family on a special trip to The Wilds, a wildlife conservation area about an hour east of Columbus. It's part of the Columbus Zoo and features large herds of rare animals raised in captive environments more like their natural environments than a traditional zoo.
We rode in a modified bus and were given a list of animals to look for on our 90-minute ride through the park.
Dad had the foresight to reserve us a ride on a handicap accessible bus! Reni loved riding up and down the lift in his stroller.
At our first stop we visited the Budgie aviary, which Ellie was naturally all about!
Our bird girl wasn't the only one good with the birds!
In one area the ostrich were very comfortable with the tourists and came right up to our bus.
This is Reni, a tad nervous, a lot excited, about a close encounter with another bird.
And since I will probably never go on an actual African safari, here are my favorite "safari" shots from the bus:
The bulk of our time with Mom and Dad revolved around preparing for their impending move to their new condo. It was great to hear Dad's excitement about their new place and talk through what pieces we could move over and where they would go.
On Thursday afternoon we walked through their future home, even though they don't officially get the keys for another two weeks.
The challenge with downsizing, of course, is, well, the downsizing.
We thought the easiest way to sell off the pieces that Mom and Dad can't keep would be to sell them online, rather than try to organize a garage sale that may or may not be rained out, or stressing about the task of moving them out of the house and delivering them to Goodwill.
In the end we went around the house and started photographing the largest items, then posted them on a website.
Thursday we made the site live and waited for the orders to start coming in! Within the first 8 hours 30% of the items posted were spoken for! Buyers will come and pick up the items at a mutually convenient time. If you are in the central Ohio area and need a somethings for your home, you can check out the site at http://waggonermovingsale.blogspot.com/ for some really good deals!
After 21 months of watching Dad care for mom from the other side of the Atlantic, we are finally able to be here in person to lend a hand and we are so glad to do what we can during this big season of transition.
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The morning we were packing up to move on to Kentucky for our next few weeks, I caught sight of Ellie in the 'granddaughters'" room and got choked up.
After Rebecca moved out and Leah and Ellie joined the family (they are the only granddaughters, 6-weeks apart in age), Mom designed a special bedroom for them whenever they would stay over.
She stocked it with lots of books and toys, perfect for little girls and hung photos of the girls at various ages all over the room so there was no doubt to whom the room belonged.
As I saw Ellie laying on the bed, reading a book, I knew this was the picture Nonna had in mind when she put the room together! When we return at the end of the month, most of the furniture pieces will be gone. Not surprisingly, these items were among the first to be claimed!
While there is so much sadness at closing this chapter, and taking apart something put together with so much love, how much better will our rooms be that Jesus is preparing for us in our heavenly home! All this... it's only temporary.
Yesterday came and it was time to move on. Mom's eyes filled with tears as we said goodbye-- but we told her we will be back soon!
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