Our eventful car trip

Our Trip to Florida was nothing short of eventful. We appreciate all your prayers though as we know it could have been so much worse!
The drive was pretty amazing. Each day we scheduled to drive for 500-600 miles. Some days were shorter due to time zone changes. Our first stop was Bringham City, Utah. While driving through Utah was beautiful it was pretty funny that the only graffiti seen on old abandoned buildings was not gang related at all but was simply to welcome home the good mormon boys who had come home from their missions. Everywhere we went we saw mormon books, LDS literature, directions to the mormon temple or LDS, ect.

After the first night Abby started complaining of nausea. Due to a mixture of nerves & car sickness she was sick the next morning so we were off to a pretty late start waiting for her tummy to calm down. I figured for sure we would be in a hospital somewhere that day getting her hydrated but God was faithful to help her keep enough liquids down that she remained hydrated. Once we figured out she needed to be in the front seat of the truck and NOT WATCHING TV in the car, she started doing a little better. Due to her fear of the unknown and coming to terms with the fact that this isn’t just a short vacation away from her friends and family……. We think this was the majority of the problem. Despite our best efforts to help her ‘digest’ what was happening, she continued to have trouble throughout the next 2 days of our trip. WE began praying with her to help her understand that God would help her make new friends and that He would be faithful to take care of all our needs when we got to Florida. Now that we are here and not on the road for long periods of time, she has not had any problems.

Benjamen has had bloody noses like no other throughout our trip as well. Before we left he was having big troubles with this, but after getting on the road he would start bleeding like a stuffed pig! After making sure to put Neosporin in his nasal passages on a daily basis he stopped having this kind of trouble though. Now that we are in the south where moisture in the air is plentiful he hasn’t had any trouble.

For those of you that were interested in where we stopped along our journey:
Day 1: WE drove through Wa, Oregon, Idaho and stopped at Brigham City Utah.
Day 2: We drove through Wyoming to Big Springs, Nebraska
Day 3: We drove through Nebraska & some of Missouri to Blue Springs Missouri
Day 4: We drove through Missouri to Clarksville, Tennessee
Day 5: We drove through the rest of Tennessee to Lake Park, Georgia
Day 6: We went through the rest of Georgia and then down to Naples, FL

On many occasions I was asking the Lord WHY we were moving during the hotest months on the year........ as we drove along the highway in the midwest we saw WHY. Each side of the highway had snow fences. I had never really seen them before but my dad was the one who told me those were to keep snowdrifts from covering the roadway. I guess, like always, God's timing really is perfect!

Besides these little deterrents going on with the kids, I lost our primary cell phone somewhere in Tennessee. Praise God we bought another cell phone before the trip and Dad brought one as well so we could communicate between the van & Truck. Our new cell number is (239) 404-1078 for those that would like it. I also lost my wallet at a gas station bathroom in Missouri somewhere. Praise God we bought gas there and had the receipt with the store’s phone number. After realizing what took place several hundred miles later at our next gas fill-up I called the store and the nice lady at the counter had found my wallet. Her manager said he would send it to my PO Box in Florida. Although all my cash was gone (which was a very minimal loss) it seemed as though all my credit/debit cards & drivers license was still in there. PRAISE GOD! Sorry I hadn’t updated you all till now. We have just been so busy trying to get a rental that it has been consuming all of our time & energy. As I sit we are still in a hotel and John is at his first day of work today. We are hoping to sign a lease today & be in our rental by tomorrow. John has to go to academy this weekend so moving in might be rather hurried!

I still haven't really mourned for what we have left behind....... I am sure once my schedule is cleared and we actually have our things in another home I will begin to feel it! Once we get to our rental I plan to get a long distance service so I can call people back home more often. Sorry to those of you who may be wondering why I haven't called very much but our cheapy net 10 phone minutes have been mostly used trying to obtain a rental. I really do love and miss you all so please do not be offended!
Thank you to all have been covering us in prayers.