The Container Has Arrived!

After 4 1/2 months of waiting, praying, dealing with paperwork and various delays, the long awaited day arrived last week.  Thursday right at lunch time we saw a beautiful site.  We caught the first glimpses of our container since we saw it leave my mom's drive way in Missouri back in mid-January.  I was so excited that as soon as we knew it was close, I went down the road just a bit with my camera.  Soon I heard large vehicle sounds, and a bit later, I could see dust clouds.  Then came this site:

Here comes the container!

I had to choke back tears, and even do now as I type this.  It has been a long emotional, prayerful time.

Yes - it is the right container!

Joshua keeping the forklift company.

The long awaited moment!

Dead battery so we push unloaded the tractor

The tractor would not start so many of the men (and a little bit of help from me) pushed it out of the container onto the earthen ramp in the field.  Many of the men carried the cutter out by hand while Jason got the tractor's battery working again.

Final unloading of the empty container - our new storage building.

I believe that the last of the costs for shipping the container have been turned in.  We were so blessed that we had a foundation donate $14,000 towards the shipping of this container, the donated tractor and our items.  The final cost according to my calculations is $14,363.05!  God is so wonderful.  We had some unexpected costs.  We had some unexpected tax exclusions and it came out almost exactly to our budget.  I am so incredibly thankful. 

Thank you so very much to everyone that has been supportive through prayer, kind words, words of encouragement, and support.  And most of all, thank you Heavenly Father for all of your blessings. 

NOW the job of sorting, unpacking and arranging.  It is a challenge, but a fun one!  So far we only have three boxes and one important bolt missing.  We will replace the bolt, and I think we will surely find the boxes.  If not, at least they were not any of the most important ones! God is so good! 

We are enjoying having are our hot water bottles (although one has sprung a leak.)  It is so nice to have one at bedtime.  Crawling into a cold bed is challenging.  And now I have my thermometer so I can know WHY I am cold.  It has been getting down in the 50's in our room during the night.  I am unsure how cold it has been getting outside. 

Doug asked where I want the rain gauge put. I said, "It's the dry season right now.  I don't know!"  I have lots of time to figure that one out.  By October I should know where I want it. 

Joshua is thrilled to have his bicycle, and we will be taking Doug's and mine to be fixed, hopefully tomorrow.  The missing bolt belongs to Doug's handle bars, and my gear changer is broke.  So we will all enjoy our bikes soon, we hope!  Thank you again!