The Move

If you had to fit all of your things into 15 bags and a storage unit...

When you know you’re supposed to do something, your first question is not “will I?” but “how will I?”

The decision to go to Rwanda came amidst a prodding in my heart that our family needed a big change to free ourselves from the thorns of this life. I think frequently about the parable of the sower because I’ve felt for a long time that I have been living as the seed in the soil suffocated by the “worries of this life and deceitfulness of wealth” (Matthew 13:22). For us, in this season, following Christ meant “taking up our cross” by selling most of our things and moving as a family to Rwanda to do His work.

The transition of our things from a large house in a suburban neighborhood to whatever could fit under an airplane seemed quite a feat. We looked into shipping crates, but fares were exorbitantly high. Others working in Rwanda told us that they moved with 3 checked bags per family member - for us, 15 in total. This seemed so crazy. But, this was what we had to do and our job was to obey - and trust God. I was actually excited about ridding myself of the heaviness of “stuff”, and teaching my kids about how blessed we truly are compared to most of the world. I also wanted to re-learn what it meant to be present with people, and I felt that all of the busy-ness of life and “stuff” tends to crowd out the all-important relationships that we are to have with one another. When the opportunity to work at VVA in Rwanda came up, it was like a clear answer to prayer because it combined the opportunity to do something bigger than ourselves but also to cast off all of the burdens that hinder me and run the race before me.

To do something this big in a quick manner, we had to have help. Step one was to prep our house for selling. We had lived in a wonderful neighborhood with a house that would likely be too large for us when we returned, so we started to whittle down our things to make our house “showable”. This is when our realtor and friend from church, Lisa K., stepped in to help us. Thom’s sister Sarah was almost “on call” given the manner we continually called and asked for her help. She always gladly agreed, especially if she felt we needed emotional support. In this clip, she was helping Thom clean out his office and they had a laugh together when they realized she didn’t know how to open a filing cabinet.

Thom had quit his job in April, so his time was free to work on all things transition, which was a blessing. We also had neighbors like Kyle B. who helped in so many ways, neighbors’ children come in last minute to help me clean, sweep and mop (shout out to Carol, Olivia, and Hannah), nieces and nephews who helped clean (Ava, Vera, and Riley), and grandparents who kept the kids - just to get our house ready to show. Our neighbor Clay A. showed up with little notice to help Thom run three big loads of items to the storage room. We couldn’t have done it without all of these people helping us.

We didn’t know how to just sell our stuff in a quick and smart way, so we hired a company who does estate sales called Peddling Post, and they helped coordinate and plan a whole weekend where people could come in and buy our things. First we had to sort through the things and categorize them into the following: take to Rwanda, store for later, or sell. We knew that we could only pack essentials for Rwanda, but enough to last us a year in the 15 bags. If there was a possibility we would need it, we put it in the basement “Rwanda room”. Before the day of the estate sale, we designated a few closets in the house as “Keep” closets so we could hide away things we may or may not need in the future. The storage unit was filled slowly with sentimental items in boxes, larger portraits of the kids, our couch (wrapped in plastic), important documents, and other things we felt we should hold onto (like Thom’s stand mixer). The buyers of our home graciously purchased some of our furniture to keep in the house, which gave Thom and I a guest bed to sleep on as we neared closing.

Thanks to the many Facebook marketplace users and good church friends and family who bought our things! After it was all over, we still had a LOT to get rid of. Peddling Post took the best of it to a few nonprofit donation centers. At the end of everything, we were impressed by how much of our stuff was not even worthy of donation. We also learned that very rarely in the future will we ever buy anything “new”, since we now know that used items are priced so low. Any future home furnishings will come from an estate sale or Facebook marketplace. :). We had a garage bay full of junk and we didn’t know what to do with it except pile it in a truck to take to Goodwill. Unashamedly, we actually went back over our “junk” and grabbed a few items we may benefit by having when we do return, to put in storage, just so we won’t have to buy it again. For the same reason, we ended up NOT selling our cars and asking Thom’s dad Gary to keep them at his place in Louisiana and to drive them intermittently.

So many people have asked about how the kids did with this. We kept them away from the house for all the three days of the sale. After it was over they came home to a house which was much more empty, and they discovered old toys that they had forgotten about, which was exciting to them. It’s amazing how few things kids really need. I think it’s clear that I as their mom have been the guilty party for teaching that they (and I) “need” more. I saw their imaginations go wild in big open echoey rooms perfect for music shows and singing and pretend games about princesses and pirates. (JV did cry when he remembered his train table was gone, but he quickly was distracted by some other game that started up. And yes, I kept a few of his train and race car toys to bring with us to build in Rwanda. )

Fifteen checked bags and 1 goofy Thom

We are so grateful to all of the friends and family who came in to help pack, move, sort, clean, and keep kids for us during this time. Our neighbors have also been great supporters and helpers. We could never had done this without all of these people! We will have more adventures to share as we settle in our new home here in Rwanda. (Sneak peak / fast forward: We did get here with all 15 bags! Now we are day 2 here as I write this.).