Twenty Days

Some details regarding our move to Boys Town

Twenty days until we move to Boys Town. We signed our contract last Friday, so this thing is officially going to happen.

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Yesterday I got a phone call from Boys Town telling us that we get to move into what will most likely be our permanent home at Boys Town. If all goes well and as planned, we won’t have to move twice, which was the original plan. That sounds very nice change of plans.

A detail with this move however is that we won’t be moving into a house like we had anticipated. Not all sixty homes on campus are identical. There are all sorts of living situations and accommodations. We will be moving into an apartment. And because the apartment is smaller than the houses, we will have six girls instead of eight.

Our private living area in the apartment is supposedly bigger and will have three bedrooms and a living room for Sarah, the boys, and me. In the main part of the apartment there will be three bedrooms for the girls, with Jack and Jill (Jill and Jill?) bathrooms for the girls to use and share.

Although we’ll be missing a formal dining room and a nook for the girls to study in, I was told that the kitchens in the apartments are almost twice the size as the kitchens in the houses. I think I might be able to deal with that.

We’re not in this for a big house. We’re in this to help these girls. From what I’ve seen up to this point, I’m pretty sure that no matter where they place us, it’s going to be a nice place to live and be a family.

Knowing we’ll have no more than six girls does seem more manageable. That means less food, less hair, and hopefully less drama. We’ll see.

Things are definitely starting to feel more real. We’re excited.

Our landlord has already shown our house to eight interested renters. We’re hoping someone signs on for her sake and for ours. Our lease isn’t up until next February, so if she can get a renter, that would save us a good chunk of change.

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The boys are looking forward to moving into our new “big house” and meeting their new “sisters.” One of the more exciting aspects of this for me is seeing how the relationships will develop between our boys and the girls. I think it will be great and so good for everyone involved (including Missy).

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Sarah’s last day of work will be here before we know it and then we’ll be finishing up the packing as we prepare for our move. Because Boys Town supplies so much of our needs, we hope to bring as little as possible. We basically won’t need to bring any kitchen items beyond some of our appliances such as our pressure cooker and rice maker.

This is basically the list of things we’ll be bringing:

• beds, a couple couches, and some furniture for our private apartment
• clothes and towels
• toys and books for the kids
• electronics
• my coffee station (more important than my bed)
• decor, such as picture frames and art
• miscellaneous items like important documents, toiletries,

Not many kitchen items. No unnecessary knick-knacks. No boxes of unused stuff. No junk that we’ve carted around with us for years that has some sort of sentimental value. No lawn equipment (despite we recently bought an electric lawn mower.) It’s time to purge as much as possible.

We’ve been trying to donate, sell, and dispose of all the things we don’t need. It definitely feels good being able to get rid of a lot of our stuff. It’s amazing how quickly stuff accumulates. In the year in a half we’ve been here in Omaha, we’ve accumulated so much that we don’t need and won’t be taking with us. The more space you have, the more feel you need to feel it.

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I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some restrictions (beyond lack of time) regarding what I can post about the job and especially any details regarding the girls. I’m pretty sure there’s specific restrictions regarding social media and blogging. But I hope to be able to talk very broadly about our life when I can find the time to blog here and there. We’ll see what the rules are here in a few weeks.

Any questions you might have about this new role of ours? Let me know in the comments.