I'm sure some of you have been holding your breath to hear all the interesting stories that life has had to offer us with a shift to Dallas and all.
Well, I'll start from the beginning, brace yourselves because this is going to be a really long posting.
Anyway so May 30th we pack all our belongings, (it's amazing how much stuff we picked up in just over 10 months of being in Philly), we put everything in storage because we figured it wouldn't make sense holding down two apartments, especially with the expense. God was so good that my navigator friends Brent and Diane came over to help us with the shift, Diane took care of Mich, Sam and Brent were carrying the stuff and I was getting rid of the small things that were lying around.
We had thought we would spend the night in an empty house on the floor or something ( I don't exactly know how that was going to work) but anyway that was the plan because our flight the next day was at 9:45 am so we needed to have left home by about 7:00am. Brent and Diane decided to host us for the night that was fantastic, they offered to take us to the airport too.
We got to Dallas about 1pm, rented a car and headed to a motel where we spent the night and the next day headed to our apartment at The Village Complex because that is where the guys we are renting furniture from where going to deliver stuff.
By about 3pm we were settled in and started packing the few things we would need for our trip to Memphis. Mich by this point was already loving the Dallas, large spaces of grass to run in and generally free space and fresh air, he was really excited.
Saturday morning we started our journey to Memphis, which I will officially call Sam's village/home, you will know why in a short while. It took us about 7 hours to get there with a few stops on the way to stretch our legs and stuff, very smooth ride on these fantastic roads. As soon as we crossed from Arkansas (which by the way is pronounced Arkinso, for those of you who didn't know) in to Memphis, they was a huge grin on Sam's face as if to say "home sweet home", he couldn't stop talking, telling me the routes he would take to work, where he lived, which part of the city looked more beautiful, all these memories came flooding back to him and that was nice. I was glad it was also a good way to celebrate his birthday and our anniversary, he really has a special bond with the city.
We were hosted by Jim and Barbara Pendleton, the family that he was attached to while he was a student at U of Memphis. They are a wonderful couple, have three children who have pretty much left home except for Melody who still lives with them but has a life of her own, (she is 23 by the way). Lovely home, with a dog and a cat and no prizes for guessing who was most thrilled and scared at the same time. Mich was so happy to spend time at the Pendletons because apart from the dog and the cat that kept running after him and him following them, they had a large garden where he spent time inspecting the flower and the insects.
We decided that we would visit the church Sam used to pray at, Covenant Community Church, we didn't think we would get any of the oldies seeing as the Steve the Pastor we knew has moved on. From the moment we arrived in the parking lot to the time we left the church, Sam kept bumping into people he knew, almost giving them heart attacks (anti some of them are not very young), anyway it was a wonderful experience. Even the new Pastor, whom we had never met recalled being told about this young man who was a member of the church but had returned to Uganda. I guess he remembered because Steve Noblett the pastor back then had made two trips to Uganda purposely to follow up on Sam, (I'm sure some of you either met him while he was in UG or heard about him).
We certainly contacted Steve and his wife Victoria and had dinner with them on Sunday, that was really exciting! I met Steve when he came to Uganda so we were already friends, I was meeting Victoria for the first time and Steve and Victoria were seeing Mich for the first time, there was a lot to celebrate. Both the Pendletons and the Nobletts treated Sam like a son who had traveled away from home and was coming back with a new family, that was interesting.
Mich was really having the time of his life, the least he did was help Steve water his entire garden, which wasn't small by any means and of course by the end of it there was more water on Mich than there was on some plants but it was all fun.
Monday, the 5th of June, we took a tour, went by the University walked through the campus, drove through town to the apartments that Sam had lived in, the places he had worked, had lunch and had some time to relax in the gardens before heading to the Zoo. Jim took time off work and he and his family gave us a tour of the Zoo, that was nice especially for Mich who was learning about all these animals and insects. After about two hours we were quite exhausted and decided to call it a day at around 5pm. We however had to meet one of Sam's good friends for dinner at 6:30pm, driving time and all would only give us enough time to get there so we decided not to go home before.
So we met up with Greg and his wife Valerie and their son Joshua who is almost three years old, well at least everyone had someone to talk to. By about 8:00pm we were through and I thought it would be a great time to head straight to bed because I was feeling really spent.
We got back to Dallas this evening and have about a week before Sam begins his internship.
