UnTyed ~ Just Smile, and have a good day!

The to-do list when you move is often long and daunting. We’ve moved several times over our 27 years of marriage and each time the load got bigger and bigger. Moving this time was not only going to be out-of-state, but came with the weight of deciding what items of Tyler’s were going to be kept and how to get rid of the other things he owned. Typically when we’ve moved, everything we owned was boxed up, maybe labeled, and moved to the new location. Several boxes were put into the garage or closet and some were even marked “need to go through later”, when our last move came down to the minute and the buyers wanted us out of the house. 

When we decided we were following God’s calling to Dallas, we also felt led to declutter our lives and only take what we wanted/needed for our 1-bedroom apartment. The last 4 months have been filled with going through things and determining, without even seeing our apartment in person, what will fit and what we want to take with us. We’ve seen pictures so we know that our bed will fit and about how much space we’ll have. I believe the apartment is around 700-800 sq ft and we are SO excited to make this change.

We began finding new homes for our bigger items and have enjoyed the journey of blessing people with things like freezers, a snowblower, most of our furniture and several larger items. Aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents helped us go through some of Tyler’s belongings and it is bitter sweet to know our new home will not have him with us. Some special items will be kept and either brought with us to Texas or stored in our Up North bedroom in Rib Lake. The more we were able to help others, the more joy we felt and we decided rather than having an auction or garage sale, we were going to have a Thrift/Moving sale and give-it-away day. A friend of Gabe’s told of an “everything’s free” event they had and how quickly their clutter disappeared. We determined that we needed to get rid of so many random items that maybe giving it away was the best idea. We also spent time trying to rehome our dogs, Thunder and Recon. We had so much to do this past week we wondered if we’d have the energy to get through, and then…

Monday:

Gabe reached out to a friend/previous co-worker in Price County that now works at the Vet clinic and would maybe know someone that would be willing to take a/Both dogs. That evening, this gentleman and his daughter decided they wanted Thunder for themselves. The dog that we got as Tyler’s Emotional Support Dog was now going to another family that we know will love him the same way we loved him.

Still Monday, Gabe reached out to a previous connection with the Sawyer County Search & Rescue group that he had worked with training Recon (our German Shepherd) for Scent Specific Search and Rescue. One of the connections that has rescue dogs, has a daughter that wants to get into it and was hoping to find a dog that had some previous experience in Scent Specific Search & Rescue. As a result, we had a planned meet up at our house for Thursday.

Tuesday: 

• Xterra (Ty’s 4 wheeled vehicle) goes to new owner(s).
• Thunder goes to new owners.
• Gabe appointments to finalize some things completed.
• Got notice from our realtor that the listing was going live on Wed morning.

Wednesday: 

• Listing goes live
• Took car to Appleton and had a great day with family, especially with D & K as we traveled together on the way home (Gabe’s brother and sister-in-law are driving our car down to TX and bringing back the truck for us)

Thursday: 

• Trailered stuff to Rib Lake to deliver to people
• Brought back one motorcycle we’ve been hoping to sell for months, to have at Thrift sale
• Gabe meetings
• Gal coming to meet Recon
• Gal meets Recon
• Recon falls in love with the girl and her mom & sisters. As Gabe puts the kennel in the back of their car, Recon jumps inside and is ready to leave with his new family!
• Recon leaves just before 5 pm.
• House showing at 5 pm people arrive and while we try to leave and get out of their way, Gabe says, “you could buy my motorcycle before we go”. Guy offers to pay cash for the motorcycle (hadn’t even sat on it or taken it off the trailer yet!) then tours the house. We follow the guy back to his local rental and receive cash payment for the motorcycle we JUST brought to our home. 

Friday:

• House showing at 8 am
• Thrift sale begins at 8 am
• Thrift sale ends at 3 pm and 95% of items are GONE!!! Literally Gone. Donations were accepted along with a sign telling people what we’re doing and there was no need to pay for anything but any donations would go to help pay tuition for Gabe’s Chaplaincy program. We made some money towards tuition and got to share our story with so many people! Almost every person that came walked away with something they really wanted and in the end, our neighbors could use much of what remained. Not only had we cleared out most of our stuff…we were able to park the trailer and truck INSIDE the clean garage for the first time since we moved here!
• During the sale Gabe was able to show the house to two couples and give them the info from our realtor
• 4:30 another house showing

Saturday:

• Get up and out for a house showing at 9 am and another at 11 am.
• We took the opportunity to deliver dressers and a couch to my parents and our son’s place and then headed up to visit some dear friends that we wanted to see before we move. We returned home Saturday evening to a mostly cleaned out house, basement and garage and had a total of 7 house showings in 3 days! 

The realtor thought as of Saturday evening, that we could be getting two offers coming in from the people she showed the house to. There were three other realtors involved with the showings so we are hoping Monday brings some exciting news of at least one offer and we are praying for no contingencies and a quick closing! Whatever the week brings, we are leaving on Friday and are hoping to have a plan in place for closing and paying off our home. We serve a mighty God and he’s been guiding us this far! We are excited to see what happens in the coming days.

The schedule for our last week in Wisconsin includes…

• Dumpster delivery
• Septic Tank Pump
• Remaining items from Thrift sale get picked up or taken to Circle of Faith for donation
• Pick up Uhaul trailer
• Deliver mower to Rib Lake
• Help Nana
• Men’s group
• Gabe’s final work day in WI
• Final packing day
• Visit friends and family on Friday
• Saturday, leave WI for Gabe’s sister’s place in Minnesota
• Sunday morning, leave Minnesota
• Sunday evening, stay in hotel in Oklahoma
• Next Monday at Noon…move into our apartment in Dallas, TEXAS!!!!

As I finish writing this post, my mind is still spinning in wonder of all of the amazing things that have occurred in the last days, weeks and even months. When we sat on our deck with my parents last September 1, trying to figure out what Ty was up to and why when we tracked him, his phone hadn’t moved in several hours, we had no idea how our lives were going to change. Losing Tyler was something we never imagined and these past 10 months have taught us so many valuable lessons in leaning on God for EVERYTHING, because without Him, I cannot even imagine where I’d be today. 

The theme we chose for Tyler’s funeral last September focused heavily on “The Goodness of God”. We have clung to those words and truly know that even when bad things happen in our lives, there is a God that loves us and he is SO, SO GOOD! We don’t understand why we had to lose our Tyler, but we have seen so much goodness come from things Tyler was involved in and how much he loved Jesus. The way he was sharing his faith by becoming the online, outgoing character he was as “Smiles” has allowed us to learn just how much his witness meant to others and we want our lives to reflect the same God that loves us so much and is showing us the Goodness, even in trials. From my new job that allows me to have insurance and hopefully enough income so Gabe can fully focus on schooling, to the lives being touched by us sharing Tyler’s and our story, we feel so blessed to begin to better equip ourselves to be used by God for His mission and His calling us, wherever that may be. We begin our journey in Texas and trust that God will guide us along the way and after Gabe completes his school. In the meantime we are excited to become residents of somewhere outside of WI for the first time, to become first-time grandparents to our soon-arriving granddaughter and to be used by God in ways only He knows. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know that God’s hand is writing our story and we can’t wait to watch Him write the next chapter!