Headed on an Adventure!

Daddy got the store in Columbia, and LifeWay paid for our expenses if we wanted to take a house hunting trip. Daddy decided he'd take it; we could look at a few houses, and he could get a better idea of what compromises Mama would be willing to make, should he, very likely, have to continue searching on his own after he started at the store down here. Plus, it would give us a chance to see our family, and introduce Noah, who was only 5 weeks old at this point, to the family members who hadn't been able to meet him yet. We were all very excited about that part of the trip :)!

We had a pretty uneventful trip on the way down to SC. We stopped for Arby's sandwiches (Peter calls these "present sandwiches!,", and loves them!) for lunch, per tradition... and found out that the CD we always listen to on long car rides was missing. We had some very interesting conversations... you try sticking eleven people in a car for six hours, and you really shouldn't be surprised at how random the conversations can get, haha! Once we got closer to our grandparent's, I was texting my Grandpa (welllllll.... first I accidentally texted their home phone... and it went through, somehow. But of course they couldn't see it, haha!) with frequent updates... "Stuck in traffic," (soooooo much traffic!) "but this far away, can't wait to see you", "Just got moving again and still this far away", "looking for Little Ceasars and this far away, see you soon", "Going in to get the pizza's and we'll be there shortly"... finally, I announced, "Pizzas in hand, and we're on our way!", and my Grandpa responded "Now we'll see you soon." Hahaha :).

We had an awesome time :). My grandparents had seen Noah, but my Aunts and Uncle had not, so that was special :). We enjoyed our pizza party, and then some sweet little cupcakes my Aunt had made. Abbi couldn't stop complimenting her homemade frosting, saying it was "sooooo yummy, and didn't make me sick!" (she's never liked confectioner's icing). She had iced them and then made some little pictures with bible references on them that she attached to toothpicks and put on top, and they were so cute! We had an awesome time sharing stories and memories... it's exciting to know that that can be a more frequent thing again! But all too soon, we had to leave to get to our hotel.

I ended up falling asleep in the car, and missed most of the trip (I can never fall asleep in the car unless it's a special trip I wouldn't mind staying awake for... haha!), but I woke up in time to hear Daddy saying, "Right down that road is my store!"

And I looked up and I saw a car dealership, and it was the strangest thing. I have not thought of that car dealership since we moved. I barely even thought about it when we lived here before! But I saw it that night, and I realized, truly, that we were coming home. Even the things that I didn't think I even noticed, are familiar. I instantly wanted to just drive home. It felt wrong to be pulling into that hotel parking lot. We're here, home, and we're staying at a hotel! I realized that I was way more ready to move back than I had thought just six weeks before! We unpacked and headed to bed, tired, and yet excited about what the next day held :).