We made it!  All of the animals survived, from the dairy goats down to the red-eyed tree frog.  There may have been a couple bees that squeezed out of their hive, but the two queens and the majority of the workers are busy enjoying the pollen found in the Ozark Mountains.  I am still without internet but am mooching off the free WIFI at Mickey D’s and the local library.

The adventure was not without its challenges.  Plan A ended up turning into plan F or G (I lost count).   The shipping company, who said they would send someone over beforehand to look at our sea container but didn’t, informed us after we packed the thirty-foot container full that they couldn’t take it.  Thankfully, another shipping company had a trailer free to send over to our house on the same Friday, so we spent the entire day into the late night stuffing it (thanks for your help Graham and Sean).  They took it the next morning and we prepared to leave Tuesday in the wee morning hours.   Two was the departure hour, but of course all trips get off to a late start and we left at three ante meridian. 

The early morning hours didn’t bother me, the lack of sleep didn’t bother me, and the little children in my van didn’t bother me, it was pulling a trailer with a little 2 ton tractor in the dark, up and down the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia that bothered me.  And then there were multiple construction sites with cement barriers I had to squeeze through that made my blood pressure rise.  But God is faithful and his mercies are new every morning, and boy, I was looking forward to that sun coming up and some flat land to drive on.  After that experience, I was a pro at towing. 

Notice we took the Northern route.  My dear husband was not thinking about all that we would be towing when we started out the way he had gone before, so those hills added hours to our trip.  (Yes, they are hills; I grew up in the Rocky Mountains so everything out East is a hill).  The driving was smooth until the evening when we met our first tornado warning with thunderstorms.  Welcome to Missouri!  Paul and the older boys were ahead of us and they continued on through the night since they had the animals.  My mom, the five younger ones, the dog, little creepy things and I stayed at the Days Inn.  I was so concerned about all the details, but the Lord worked them all out.  They took dogs at the hotel, they allowed me to park my monstrosity so I didn’t have to back up, and they even allowed my two extra kids (according to fire code) to stay in the room.  We had a nice complimentary breakfast the next morning and made it to Highlandville with lovely weather by the afternoon.  My poor husband drove back to VA the Sunday after we arrived and still has a lot of work to do—more loading, cleaning, fixing things, etc.  We are missing him.   

The view is lovely, the house works well for us, and the dog can finally run free like a dog should.