container day.

Thursday was “Container Day,” as my dad aptly named it. We found out about a week ago that it was making its way down from New York to Charleston, then learned on Wednesday that the truck would arrive Thursday.

The moving company sent men to unload everything, then unpack and assemble all the furniture. It was wonderful! Thanks to my parents for bringing Chick-Fil-A for the kids’ dinner, and to Miriam for giving us a much-needed date night to escape the madness.

It was 51 boxes in all … so our house was in chaos, as you can imagine. We were disappointed to find several things were broken in transit: my desk, our favorite glass-front bookcase, big framed mirror, and our bed frame/footboard. But we have insurance, so should be compensated.

We worked like crazy Thursday and Friday unpacked, sorting, and I’ve done mountains of laundry. Also cleaning. Sheets of dust are still falling from our area rugs–even after I’ve vacuumed about five times! Yikes.

It was emotional for me throughout the morning, opening boxes, feeling a pang pulling out familiar things, noticing how much Priya washed and organized for me. I’m unbelievably grateful that we were allowed to ship our things home. So many sweet memories.

Of course I don’t want to do a house tour until everything’s picture-perfect, but I’m not sure when that’s going to happen (plus, if you remember, I’m supposed to be embracing un-picture-perfection). So here’s our progress as of this afternoon!

David crashed on the sofa after lots of unpacking

The built-ins (they make me so, so happy and make me feel like God had this house picked just for us)

Dining room/homeschooling room

Kitchen (I love my big windows!)

Hallway (I’m trying to redeem our sets of sheets, but they are all, sadly, a permanent dingy gray)

Office/guest room/eventual homeschooling room (and we’ve got guests coming a week from tomorrow … so it better be ready!)

Master bedroom

Kids’ room

It’s been quite a process obtaining and consolidating all our things from storage at my parents’, storage at David’s parents’, storage at my brother’s, and, of course, from South Asia. But now, at long last, it’s all united.

David said, “The best thing about all this work is that next time we move, it will be easy because all our stuff is in one place.”

Hmmm, why does that not make me feel better?

Right now, I won’t even think about “next time.” Right now, I’ll give thanks for our things and I’ll curl up in my cozy living room with a book and I will rest.