Months earlier we were living in the upstate of SC. I could see my home state of NC from the back windows of my house, because that's where the mountains began. We'd watched the sun slowly dip behind them many times in the years we were there. Each day I'd watch birds soaring over the abondoned peach orchard behind our house, as clouds slowly drifted by. I often felt envious of the birds. I knew they could see the world, while I spent days stuck inside. In the summer, late afternoon storms would roll in sometimes, and blacken the sky behind those blue mountains, and I thought it was beautiful. At night I could see the moon. We were like two old friends, the moon and me, keeping each other company while everyone else slept. Our family lived in the country, and at every roadside stand, you could pick up all the freshly picked peaches you could ever want. The smell of a peach cobbler, fresh from the oven, took me back to childhood at my Grandma's. Life was great in SC. I thought it was one of the most wonderful places on Earth.
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| View from our family room. This is where I did my bird and cloud watching... |
And yet again, I mention birds in a blog post. I'm starting to think this is abnormal...
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| Took this one from inside the house. We had snow last year! I know 2 pictures of the same thing were not necessary, but since I couldn't decide, I just posted them both rather than struggling for days over which one. It's my blog afterall, so I can. |
But last year our life in SC ended as abruptly as a book being slammed shut in the middle of a good chapter. If that moment could have made noise, it would have sounded like a record player's needle violently snatched from your favorite old vinyl record. It was over. And five minutes later, a job offer in NJ fell into Steve's lap, like rain from the sky. I still remember saying, "I'm not going to NJ." But we were told that the people of the church where Steve's Dad is pastor, were praying that we'd want to come up here. I got scared because when a church-full of people start praying, things start happening. They wanted Steve to be their youth pastor/music leader/teacher/and whatever else... At least if he wasn't a senior pastor anymore, the four of us wouldn't have to live as cats hanging upside down from the ceiling, as we had the last 3 years or so. That sounded inviting. We'd also be working with our own kids as well, and give up the constant struggle to protect them in the life we'd been in. We could all breathe again. Breathing is good.
So a few more weeks passed and we were packing up everything we owned-- NJ bound. During all of this time we experienced great loss. I won't go into what all it was, because I honestly don't even want to think about it, and certainly no one needs that kind of depressing information while reading a goofball blog such as this. Put simply, there was death, loss of friends, betrayal, financial loss, lives turned upside down, rejection, sickness, leaving SC and the life we'd had for 8 1/2 years, while Steve was a pastor. There. That's the gist. We experienced more drama than the daytime soaps I'd watched with Grandma when I was growing up, which she calls "the stories." But now real life was harder than the stories ever were.
During all of this, I took the time to prepare a fun list of demands, which would have to be agreed upon, for me to move to this northern state with a questionable reputation. This is where Cherry Pie comes in. I won't go into all of the ridiculous things I listed, not that I've forgotten them. I'm still waiting for him to say, "Get ready. We've gotta catch the train to NYC to do that ice skating at Rockefeller Center." (Which one of my friends happens to be doing today. When are WE going, Steve?) But among the many things listed, was a new car for me. Sounds reasonable, right? It would actually be a necessity in our new life, but I wasn't sure how we would buy it because medical bills had left us as broke as dirt. But as soon as we got up here, the money for the entire car also just fell into my lap, just as the job offer had fallen into Steve's. Now I know money is money, and money is the root of all evil and all, but this money was so special to me. Explaining why that was, would be difficult, but I felt like a ray of sunshine was shining down on me from heaven. So about a week after the move, we were car shopping. I was walking by some cars, when suddenly I asked, "Wait... What are these little cutenesses?" That's when I met Cherry Pie. And soon, she would be mine.
Now the night we bought Cherry Pie was certainly bizarre. We found ourselves sitting in the dealership at 10pm. We were tired. They were tired. We just needed to finish signing papers and get out of there. Life had really taken a toll on me lately. I struggled to put one foot in front of the other, for weeks. And like Randy Travis used to sing, I felt "like a stone" that had been "picked up and thrown"... to NJ. But the sales manager, who knew NOTHING about us except that Steve is or was, or kinda still is, a pastor. He had no idea what the last several months had been like. Suddenly he says, "I need to tell you my story." ....... What? I'm exhausted and semi-suicidal, and you're gonna tell us your life story? So he begins talking, and I'm thinking, "Great, we're gonna be stuck here all night in a showroom, that smells strangely like paint thinner with a HALF-CRAZED, high pressure car-pusher." The other salesman just kept having us sign papers, and I wondered if inside his head he was screaming, "SHUT UP! SHUUUUUUT UUUUUUP!!!!" So anyway, he tells us an extremely long story about how he'd had everything he'd ever wanted, and lost it all. Everything. His wife, his job, his home, all of his money, and more... Then, in the end, after countless, outrageous twists and turns, he got it all back, right down to the same honkin' big house and furniture! There were so many details which humanly seemed impossible! Then he said, "I'm telling you this to let you know that God can give you back everything that you've lost." ...... I almost fell out of the chair. I was so hoping I wouldn't fall out of the chair because that would have been excessively awkward. I didn't say a word about what had happened to us because I was unable to speak, but I left that night believing that God really sent that man to tell me that. So Cherry Pie and I left the dealership and headed home, and I began to cope a little better. I knew I'd never live in Campobello, SC again, and I knew my Daddy who'd recently passed, wasn't coming back, but it reminded me that God was in control of what we have and what we don't have, and there's always a reason for the haves and don't haves, and I really didn't need to worry about what I don't have. There.
Months have passed now, and we're all very slowly retracting those claws from the ceiling. Our SC house sold the very first day it was on the market, before we'd even reached NJ, so there'd be no running back home, no matter what we found when we got here. The church is warm and friendly and the people LAUGH a lot! That was the first thing that impressed us. I've realized that NJ isn't near as bad as people say it is. I'm not sure why some people dislike it. I kinda enjoy it. People are really LOUD and fun here. And here, my odd humor isn't usually met with blank stares, or concerned looks. Maybe if NJ would change the traffic laws so you could make left turns people would enjoy it more. I know I would. I learned how to pull out into heavy traffic recently, and someone showed Cherry Pie and me their tall finger. I've heard that happens very often here so I'm thinking that's the state hand symbol, kinda like state trees or state flowers or something. I guess that's their way of saying NJ is #1? I don't let it bother me though because I can expressively stick my tongue out, right back at them. Then I try to figure out where I'm going. Cherry Pie and I get lost pretty often, but somehow we always find our way to where we're supposed to be... sometimes with the help of OnStar or frantic phone calls to the husband.
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| So this is Cherry Pie. I think she's cute. Her candy apple red paint has little sparklies in it. She has a sun-roof and beige leather interior. And did you know that I don't have to pump gas in NJ? All gas stations have nice Arab men who do it for you, like I guess it's a law up here. Awesome law. |
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| The inside of Cherry Pie. |
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| Ok, one last pic of SC beautifulness. This is how those juicy, delicious peaches begin. I miss 'em!!! |
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