A Surprisingly Productive Stroll

I was sitting outside watching my little girls and talking to Gary on the phone as he drives down to Texas for his new job, when I noticed a moving truck down the street. Normally, I am not a nosy person, but for some reason, I started walking toward the truck. I was thinking that they might need help and I could volunteer my strong boys. As I got closer, I realized that it was a tractor trailer, not just a move-it-yourself kind of truck. We have been discussing the fact that we probably need more space than a regular moving truck has. It took two Penske trucks to move all of our stuff here from Illinois. As I got even closer, I realized that these were professional movers and did not need any help. But I kept walking, talking with Gary all along.

The new owner of the house came around the side of the house, and I told him that we would be moving out next week, so I was checking out the truck. He said that these movers from United Van Lines had been great and that I should talk to the guy in charge. So I hung back a little, not wanting to disturb them while they were busy unloading the truck. But the guy in charge of moving looked over at me, so I asked if I could talk to him when they got done. He said, “Come on over here.” So I walked over to him with Gary still on the other end of the cell phone. He asked when we were moving and where to. I told him Houston, near Sealy. The new owner of the house heard me, and asked if my husband’s job was with BAE Systems in Sealy. I said it was, and he said he moved here to work at BAE Systems in York.

Well, we all moved here because Gary came here to work for BAE Systems in York, and that didn’t turn out well at all. That’s why he ended up working in South Carolina instead! So I said, “I don’t think you want Gary telling you what he thinks about BAE Systems in York.” The new neighbor smiled and nodded. I told him that Gary was a technical writer and worked in technical publications. He said that Gary probably knew these certain guys then and threw out some names and I relayed to Gary what he was saying. I found out his name was Jeremy and handed the phone to him and said, “I know you’re busy, but could you talk to him for a minute?” He was happy to, and he and Gary talked for a few minutes. He ended up telling Gary he would send him an email tomorrow morning with some names of people to contact there at the Sealy facility.

Meanwhile, the mover called me over and warned me not to try to find a mover online. Well, I didn’t know any other way to find one. I told him, “All we know is the internet now.” He said over and over, “Don’t find somebody online, it’ll be the worst experience you ever had.”

So I asked him what we should do. He said all the moving companies are extremely busy right now, and he didn’t think we would be able to get anybody for another month at least. He saw that I was crestfallen, so he kind of whispered, “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but you need to check with ABF Freight. They’ll bring the trailer and leave it, you load it, they drive it down and you unload it.” That’s exactly what we’ve been wanting to do, but we didn’t know who to contact. Now we know that we need a freight company, not a moving company. And Gary has some good contacts at his new job in Sealy on his first day at work!

As I was praising the Lord, I thought I should do something to welcome our new neighbors to the neighborhood. I just happened to buy two boxes of brownies at the store right after I took my productive little stroll. Garrett loves to bake brownies, and I need to keep packing, so I assigned Garrett to bake some brownies to take to our new neighbors to welcome them to the neighborhood.

I like walking in the Spirit. I never know what I might do next! Or what blessing is waiting just around the corner.