Moving day for Bethany...

Today was moving day for Bethany.  She and Chase are sharing an apartment while they both attend the same university.

In Bethany's characteristic organized way (her lists have sub lists and are color-coded) the move actually went really smooth.  We finished up the packing early this morning, loaded up into a friend's truck and drove to Denton.

This is the first time we'd seen what she'd picked out over weeks of comparison shopping, finding out things were full, then going back and looking again.

Square footage-wise the apartment is pretty close to the square footage of our first house. The kitchen is large with lots of storage and the two bedrooms each have their own bathroom and are separated by the living room. (The mantle does lean...which is a little quirky.)

Since Chase was away at camp where he's worked this summer as a counselor, we got his things moved and set up too. (He gets less than 24 hours off each week and couldn't get here until evening.) I got to play "mom" and do a bit of organizing and decorating while John did the "dad" thing and assembled furniture. Bethany unloaded boxes and washed dishes. (She picked out way cool square plates!)

After the last of the boxes were broken down, we all had dinner at Uncle Julios--the restaurant where we celebrate all big family occasions. (We even got to see Melanie S. there!)  Then the kids came back to the house, grabbed a few last items and drove off to spend their first night in their new place.

Everyone has asked me...are you sad?  And I haven't been...until just now.  And sad maybe isn't even the right terminology.  After all, I couldn't be prouder of the way Bethany has navigated all of the grown up activity or more excited about her joy in her new place.  But tonight, as we prayed over both of the kids....John, Bethany and I all teared up a bit.

And something inside me was very grateful to learn that she is actually going to miss us too.