Sunshine

The sun showed its face today, woohoo! It is good to see the blue sky. I was beginning to feel like we were still in Pittsburgh with all the rain and gloom.

So we spent the afternoon at a nearby playground while Abigail ran off some pent up energy and Tristan enjoyed some lunch.

So (in you are interested) here are a few random but nonetheless striking observations I have made about this town over the last few days of exploring.

1) Most of the curbs in town are made of marble! Seems like a strange use of resources to me for a blue collar town. But I must say that curbs are in really good condition, not crumbling all over the place like in TC, and look like they have been there for a long time. (I told you this was random!)

2) There seems to be a high rate of teenage mothers for a small town. The school is on spring break this week so kids are out and about and I have seen at least 7+ way-t00-young moms in the last 2 days. Sad.

3) This is most certainly a small town. People you don't know chat with you on the street, stop there car to comment on your cute children, etc. New and a bit alarming for me.

Adjusting to this new way of life is going to take a while for all of us. But Abigail seems to be having the hardest time right now. Many of the pillars of her life (nanas and papies, her yard, her dog, her bed) are not here, everything is different, and camp is not what she expected. We realized on the way up that she was thinking that we would go to the camp as soon as we got here, life in a house there, and there would be lots of kids her age around to play with. It is hard to watch a child so young struggle with disappointment. We are enrolling her swim lessons which start next week and hope to do some other things that will bring some structure and familiar faces in her life. The sun is shining with a promise of warmer weather to come, we are making connections to people and God has always provided for us and will do that once again. It is a joy to watch His work.

We are here!

So I really don't think we could have packed another thing in the van!

After driving through a Nor' Easter, we arrived in North Adams, MA Sunday morning to our one-bedroom guest condo and unloaded our overflowing van to our new (temporary) home. Today we got a tour of the town from a North Adams native that works with Matt. We checked out the the local grocery store (the Big Y), ate at the pizza place that we can see from our windows, listened to the fire trucks about 4 times a day (fire station is right around the corner), typed to the sound of the church bells, and have seen a lot of rain. All and all we are beginning to discover our new hometown.

On the list for this week? Check out the laundry mat three blocks down, stop at the post office at the end of the block, check out the library on the other corner, ask around about the local farmer's market (yes, even though there is snow on the ground here, it is melting fast and I am thinking SPRING!), sign Abigail up for swimming lessons at the Y, get to see the camp sometime after they can open up the road...and whatever else Matt and I can think up!

I am excited to explore the opportunities here and make this town our home but I am also leery of the work ahead to settle in. Ah, maybe I am just sick of the rain (it has literally not stopped once since Saturday night!) so pray for sunshine! And give thanks for God's provision of people that we are already starting to make connections with. Miss you all!