This is the story of the Sierra Family's sojourn out west. We packed up our condo and two storage units, said good-bye to family, friends (including one girlfriend) and our two cats and headed off into the sunset....It had taken two days longer than planned- two long, stress-filled days of packing, taping and marking boxes until we didn't really care if we had material possessions or not. But finally, we drove out of town on Sunday evening, July 9, 2011. Stopping for dinner in Gainesville, I began to fall asleep in my dinner plate, the stress of the past few weeks finally taking their toll, so we stopped for the night at a Hilton Garden Inn. Pathetic. Our big journey and we'd only made it an hour-and-a-half down the road... Looking on the bright side, we called our friends Irene and Walmir De Costa and met their darling little family for breakfast. Irene used to babysit the boys when they were young and now JG is off to college, Benjamin is a teenager and Irene is the mother of two adorable little boys. When did this happen?! Wait! We're old. Darn! I forgot!! So, why are we leaving 20 years of Florida and family to drive out West with no house yet? Well, that's a good question and, hopefully, as we journey together, the answer may become clear not only to us but also to those of you who know and love us.
Damon (8 months), Irene, Walmir, and Christian (2 years).
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| JG and Jackie wandering our neighborhood in search of someone to give our butcher's block to! Our originals hopefuls were not home, so Juan carried one of the chairs to our solid oak kitchen table across the street to a neighbor to see if she could use them. She burst into tears because she didn't think anybody cared about her. She was new in the city, a single mom, and was going to Goodwill to look for a table and chairs when we showed up. She and her 12 year old daughter were using a card table to eat. I felt bad giving her a table that needed to be re-finished but as it turned out that was her hobby. So a random act of kindness turned into an opportunity to share the gospel. This is one of my favorite parts of life; we share a little bit of ourselves and touch the lives of others for good. I'm glad she felt loved. |
