Our Journey to Paradise

We had to get in one last trip to the beach since who knows how long it's going to be until we can go again. :( Anyway, we packed up with the help of a small army of missionaries from our church (6 of them, plus some of our friends) and hit the road on Thursday with Bo driving the moving truck and me driving our car with Melia in the back seat surrounded by more of our stuff. Our plan was to drive for about 5 hours to get to Stockton to spend the night there and then drive the rest of the way to Paradise the next day. Well, things don't always turn out the way you plan. Our 5 hour drive turned into 7 and let me just say that road trips with two year olds are not for the faint of heart or the low on patience. Melia did pretty good overall, but those moments of breakdowns with gut wrenching screaming were not so fun and by the time we finally got to Stockton, we were all more than ready to relax in a nice hotel room. Well, Bo had gotten a deal on the room through our rental truck company at the Econo Lodge and let me just say it was one of the most ghetto places I have ever been in. (and if you know me, that's saying a lot) Highlights of our room: the most disgustingly dirty floor--I didn't want Melia touching anything!, lingering smoke smell left from the last people, bathroom door that didn't close, peep hole in the door stuffed with toilet paper, TV that had no remote and when we asked for one, we got one that only worked sometimes, channels on the TV weren't what the titles showed (ex. TV says it's animal planet and there's a baseball game on), some channels had no sound, loud people in the hallways, etc. To top off our stay, we got a call from Bo's grandma, whose house we were supposed to be moving into, saying that there were really bad fires in Paradise and she had been evacuated from her house. So there we were, in the ghetto with our whole lives packed up in a truck outside, now wondering if we would even have a place to live. Despite all this, we were actually just really grateful to have a bed to sleep in and a place to stay for the night. The next day, the evacuation order was still in effect, so we drove up another hour or so to Sacramento and God led us to a hotel that was like heaven and it was for a price that you could never find in So. Cal. They even gave us a one bedroom suite for the studio price after we told them our situation. What a blessing! So the next day, they lifted the mandatory evacuation order and we drove the last two hours and finally arrived in Paradise. It was crazy to see all of the burned areas just black all over. Bo's grandma's house was fine though (another huge blessing) and we were able to get all of our stuff moved unloaded in just a couple of hours (again with the help of 4 missionaries from the area). So that's it. There's our moving story. :)