Goin’ West

I didn’t realize that leaving Missouri would be a bit tougher than I thought.  This time, going to Arizona, is pretty much final.  We have a contract on our home—well, to be totally correct, we have a contingent contract on our home.  We are allowing the buyer to get their house sold.  Our buyers are very motivated, so I have much faith that they will get their home sold as quickly as possible.  Now, the caveat to that is that while our home has a contingent contract, other prospective buyers can still view the home and even make an offer.  I know that is risky for the buyer’s contract contingency, but that is how the contingent contracts work.

I am planning that this will be our permanent move.  I am an optimist.  I believe my buyer will be able to sell their home in a fair amount of time.  They are motivated, so hopefully, they are motivated to do what it takes to have it happen as quickly as possible.

I have been packing boxes all last week and this week.  Of course, that is between a trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana, several doctor’s appointments we had to get out of the way so we don’t need doctors in Arizona, hopefully for a while.  My husband put a reservation in for a trailer to haul the boxes, and then realized, he needed to change to a larger trailer.  It should hold all our boxes and our luggage will go into the back of the car.  Dennis is good about making sure the car is ready to go.  He has done all the maintenance and more to be road ready.  He read all the specs on using the particular trailer, and stopped today to add air pressure to the tires according to the specs.

This weekend my Missouri kids all came out.  I invited them to “shop” my kitchen.  I have several kitchen appliances, and other items, along with food that will not be going with us.  They walked into the house, and I handed them bags and told them to fill.  The loaded bags with food, and bakeware, cookware, glasses, wine glasses, and a myriad of kitchen items.  We went from room to room as I offered them bedroom furniture, living room furniture, and miscellaneous items.  Of course, when it comes to the furniture, they cannot have it until we actually close on our home.  There is a couple reasons for that, first being this home in Missouri is still our primary home, and hopefully nothing bad will happen with this contract, but if it does, we have a home to stay until it sells.  I learned a lesson when I married Dennis.  I had my home on the market, and it was taking a while and I wanted my furniture at this home in Mid Missouri.  I asked my real estate agent if it was okay to remove my furniture.  She saw no problem.  She told me that if the home has a lot of issues, such as needs painting, frayed carpeting, etc., furniture is a good way to distract the buyer from flaws that are easily repaired, but may discourage a buyer unnecessarily.  She said my home was in excellent condition and having it empty will not show any flaws.  That was well and good until I got a letter from my insurance company telling me that they were cancelling my homeowner’s policy because I abandoned my home.  Who ever heard of that?  Apparently, somehow they found out there was no furniture and they considered the home abandoned.  We called around and we found a new plan that said as long as we stay there two days out of the month, it would not be considered abandoned.  We put a bed in one room, and when we visited our kids, we stayed in the house.  So, lesson learned.  Furniture stays, especially if the sale goes south—“please, Lord, don’t let that happen.”

After the kids left from their day of “pillaging” the house, Dennis and I sat out by our fire pit, and it really hit me.  I was going to be leaving our family and going half way across the country.  It was a tough evening for me.  I had to go back and realize that all our kids in Missouri are very busy adults.  The grandkids in Missouri are teenagers and older.  They are also very busy.  We don’t really see them that often.  Two of our kids already have plans to come to Arizona to visit us this December.  We also plan to spend the hot summer months out of Arizona and back in Missouri.  If our house is sold and final, we will probably rent somewhere in St. Louis where are kids are.  We can enjoy our friends there, go to Cardinal baseball games, the world renowned St. Louis Zoo, the Muny Opera (it’s not really opera—it’s a world’s largest outdoor theater that performs musical theater), along with going back to Mid Missouri to visit family and friends.  What am I worried about?

Then Sunday I sat down in church and realized that this was my last full time every Sunday at a church that has the best music of any church I have ever attended in my life.  The sermons are solid and deep.  The church is loving and benevolent.  Just this last September our church had a special offering to help pay off the medical bills that have gone to collection  for people who were earning less than two times the poverty rate.  In two weeks this church raised enough, not only to pay off the debt in Boone County where the church is located and the four surrounding counties, it paid off the debt in 31 Missouri counties!  Wow!  In a two week period of the time church collected for the “Jubilee” fund $430,000.  It would pay off $430 million dollars in debt.  This past Sunday, our pastor announced that the payment had been made, and it actually paid $500,000 of medical debt.  This is such an amazing thing, and any church or organization can do this.  If you would like to know how this works, just click on this word, “Jubilee,” and read why and how this happened.

It’s hard to leave a church that is so connected to the community.  They support so many ministries that help people.  It is hard to leave great teaching and great music, and seeing God work through the people in the church.  I love the fact that my grandson and his roommates have attended with us since they all started their freshman year at the University of Missouri.  I will miss seeing these young men every week.  Don’t tell them, but they will probably see deliveries of cookies and goodies coming from Arizona!

It is time to move forward.  I have always loved new adventures.  I have always loved meeting new people.  I have always loved trying new places and new things.  So, here is my chance.  I already have 12 first cousins in the Phoenix area, several high school classmates there, and made new friends with neighbors and people at a church there.  What am I afraid of?  In reality, I am not afraid of anything.

I know when I arrive there, I will be busy for a week or so reorganizing the kitchen, finding places for all our stuff.  There is no basement in this house, but there are plenty of closets.  I also know it will take a few weeks to feel the flow again.  When I came back to Missouri this summer from a winter in Arizona, it took me a week or so to remember how I did my days here.  It will be the same going there, but we will find our flow, and we will get in rhythm.

Change is never easy, but if we don’t move forward, if we don’t embrace change, we become stagnant.  I am 70 years old, will be 71 in December.  I don’t know how long I have on this earth, but while I have time, I want to make the most of it especially while I am healthy enough to do so.  I may still have feet in both Arizona and Missouri for a while.  I will always be a midwestern girl with midwestern values.  I also have midwestern taste.  I have already found a shop that has “Missouri pork steaks” just down the road from our new house.  I have packed up several bottles of Maul’s Barbecue Sauce and Zia’s Salad Dressing to enjoy in the southwest.  Now I’m ready to learn about the specialties of Arizona.

This is gonna be fun!