Going Home

Packing up our little car to start our journey!

After a whirlwind of a week that was spent finishing work, wrapping up things with the house, and thankfully getting to spend time with our friends and family, we reluctantly said our goodbyes (with a couple tearful breakdowns in between), got in the car this morning, and left Pittsburgh. It was very difficult to leave the people we love, and a strange feeling for both of us to leave a city that has been our home for the last 8-10 years. But on the reverse side of this, it is very exciting to finally begin this new chapter of our lives together that we have talked and dreamed about throughout those 8-10 years in the ‘Burgh.
           Last weekend we still did not have a tenant to rent our house. We spent all weekend furiously cleaning and putting last minute items into boxes. On Sunday, with the help from our friends Beth and John Vassallo, we packed up almost all that we own into a U-haul, minus the carload that will be coming with us, finished loading it into storage, and shut the door to all of our possessions one last time. Beth and John were then gracious enough to welcome us into their home for this past week of transition from employed home owners to unemployed nomads, or as Mike likes to call himself, “retired”.
           Sunday night after moving things out, Mike and I went back to our house to try to pack our remaining essential items (which obviously included Paddy bear and some comic books) into suitcases, hoping to fit everything in the car with enough room for Clover in the backseat. After weeding through the first load and repacking until 2:30 am, we pulled out our old twin mattresses from the attic, a set of sheets from one of our bags, and a fleece picnic blanket, and camped out that night in our empty room. The next morning we got up and fit all of our bags in the car on the first try.

           Talk about feeling displaced – We went from living in our own home to camping out in it to being forced out to allow strangers to move in – it has been such an eye-opening experience. Our agent met with Mike and the tenant on Tuesday and the lease was signed for one year! We are now officially landlords…and homeless!

At Beth and John's house enjoying Friday night fondue!

           I always tease Mike saying that he has gone from homeless minister to homeless almost overnight, but in a sense, this is reality. While we can in no way compare ourselves to the homeless and needy people that Mike and the LIVING Ministry care for, it is still a surreal feeling to not have a home. This week while I finished work and Mike wrapped up projects at our house, arriving at Beth and John’s house at all hours of the night, we found that this reality of being without our home became even greater. At the same time, it was also interesting how easily we found ourselves saying “Let’s go home” as we were leaving one place to go back to Beth and John’s. Why is it so easy for us to say this? Where is home? Like the saying ‘home is where the heart is’, we joked that ‘home is where Clover is’. But I know it’s more than this. When we go to visit Mike’s parents we say “home”, and as we traveled to Lancaster today to see my family and friends I still caught myself calling it “home”. I guess home truly is where the heart is. Even if we still own our house, it is an overwhelming thought that although we don’t live there anymore, we have multiple homes and plenty of people that love us who make that place home.

Saying goodbye to baby Julia

           I pray that at each of our stops, starting with San Antonio, we can make a home there for ourselves and that the absence of our friends and family won’t change that. While we remain close with the people that we love who are back “home”, I pray that we can make new friends and family everywhere we go, that we can be strong for each other and grow closer together in our times of loneliness, and that because of these things that we can, in turn, find it easy to say at the end of a day or long weekend out of town, “Let’s go home”.

Our test run with Clover to the kennel...I think we need to repack...

A New Adventure Begins

 One day in nursing school on my way home from class, I was walking along Bayard Ave. on a beautiful, sunny spring day. I don’t remember that much else about the class or what was going on in my life at the time, but I got an overwhelming sense of joy and a realization that I could do anything. I said out loud to myself, “The world is my canvas!” When I shared this story with Mike later that night, we were both laughing as we imagined walking past someone and suddenly seeing them smile and burst this out loud, but the phrase stuck ever since and we have found ourselves using it often over the years. As we have been getting ready, packing up our house and trying to tie loose ends here and there, we have seen God working in this process in amazing ways. There have been countless times that I loose faith, freak out and think ‘what the heck are we doing!?’ but as soon as times get stressful and a situation is completely out of my control, something is resolved and ends up even better than we could have imagined. It is then that I am reminded that we will be taken care of if we give our complete trust in God’s plan. He makes me feel so silly for even worrying in the first place.

            Ever since we began to make plans to travel, Mike and I have talked about starting a blog to keep our family and friends up to date with what is going on in our lives as we begin this new adventure. I wanted to start writing before we had any plans confirmed, but then I thought - Well, who really cares about all of this? Nothing interesting is happening yet.  It was a recent discussion with my friend Beth, an avid blog reader always ready to give advice or a recommendation from a favorite blog, which helped to encourage me to start writing.  I asked her what makes a blog worth reading and what captures the readers’ attention?  I’m by no means an amazing writer, and I’m afraid that what I write about won’t be funny enough or informative enough or even the least bit interesting.

 “But your life already is interesting…you’ve got all of these things you’re trying to figure out and you are going to be picking up and leaving and traveling around the country in two weeks!” Beth always has a way of making me feel like, a) I’m the most hilarious person she’s ever met, b) what I say really matters, and c) that my life is way more interesting then I find it to be. She’s one of the most encouraging and insightful people that I know. I guess those are all things that make her such an amazing friend!

            So after this reassurance from Beth to just write about us and people will simply want to know what we are up to, I realized that she’s right! This stuff is pretty interesting and Mike and I are both so excited to share with our friends more than just the basics of when, where, how long, and why? We hope that this blog can be a way for us to document our journey as we create new memories in different places, and that it can help to keep all of you posted on what is going on in the life of the Gallos! 

            So to answer those basics:

When: We will likely be leaving Pittsburgh on September 20^th and I will start my job on October 18^th.

Where: We will spend the weekend of the 17^th in Pittsburgh visiting with Mike’s parents and his family that live here in the burgh’. After this, we are planning to take a little road trip across the country to see my parents and our friends in Lancaster, head out to St. Louis to see Mike’s brother Steven and our sister-in-law April, then on to Colorado to see my sister Keri, our brother-in-law Angus, and to meet our soon to be born little nephew!! We are so excited for this time to see family and friends before moving on to SAN ANTONIO!!!

How long: My contract will be 5 months, so we will be done March 19^th. Then it’s on to our next mystery city!

Why: Because the world is our canvas!!