I am amazed that I got through it all and came out safe and well on the other side. Moving a ton of accumulated stuff from the school (we benefited four great charities), cleaning out and giving back our Marsaskala rented house, finishing off the new bought house in Marsaskala, moving stuff to the new Marsaskala house, moving the bulk of our house contents and personal belongings to the new house in Italy, then, unpacking in Italy and setting up our new home here.!!!!!! Whew.
Yes, I do believe in God but to discover he is a god who looks after the itty-bitty things alongside you and you can lean on and regard as an honest to goodness partner in the whole process … well that was a new and wonderful experience.
Here is a small example of that. We bought a washing machine 18 months ago to use in the rented house and then to ship to Italy when we moved. It broke down, sounded like a rusty cart when it spun. They came and changed the entire drum and washing section just THREE WEEKS before we shipped it out. Nice one.
Then here is an example of a much smaller but even more typical event of the hundreds of events like it. When the huge trailer with our stuff arrived in Pietrelcina, it came through Naples and held all our furniture and 75 boxes. The company who were doing the moving loaded it on the huge trailer in Malta then drove out to Italy, arriving the night before the arrival of the trailer, to be ready to unload it when it arrived at the house. We were a bit concerned because it took 5 men in Malta to pack and load it and the four men who came were not as strong looking. Added to that, they had to leave as soon as it was done and drive 12 hours back to catch the ferry to Sicily and Malta. One of the men of the Malta team went for a walk in the town and very cleverly hired three of the African immigrants who are living around here to come and help.
The immigrants said they would come but took much longer to arrive than they said. Meanwhile, the trailer which had come from the docks in Naples, was parked a mile away and could not figure out how to get to us. So, there we were at the house, all waiting both for the missing trailer and the missing help. In God’s good timing, they both turned up within minutes of each other and the unloading went like clockwork. Had the trailer arrived before the men, it would have been very difficult.
That is the way everything seemed to go. I just learned to ‘lean’ on it, stop worrying and do what I had to do, and things all worked out. If I totally forgot something important, it would suddenly pop into my mind just at the crucial moment. What a great and reassuring experience it all was. I really had to share that with you.