Moving home - bye bye Happy Valley

Its been just over a week since we packed everything in boxes and came over to our new home.

We have somehow emerged. Emerged from a haze of a string of late nights spent packing – and then the daze of the D-day of moving (mercifully with very little rain) and now a week of what can only be called a craze of the unpacking – and scrubbing every nook and cranny of the new residence. We have emerged somewhat intact – and in a pretty beautiful flat to boot!

Lets step into the a time machine and travel through the last fortnight again.

It all started just under a month ago. Enoch told Sheba that “wouldn’t it be good if we were living close to the Lok Hospital building.” Sheba told me. We talked and prayed and called Dr. Stephen. Could we move into one of the Bethany Trust flats which the nurses were vacating. “I don’t see why not” came Stephen’s reply.

The flat is a minute’s walk away from the Jeevan Sahara Kendra Community Care Centre at the Lok Hospital building. It is 5 minutes walk away from the children’s school (1 minute by scooter). We prayed and had a real peace to move forward.

And so with a sudden spurt our shift of house started.

Once the Bethany nurses had left the flat, we went to take a peek at the house. It desperately needed paint. The kitchen was caked in grease. Tears flowed.

We called a friend of ours who paints. He agreed to start in 2 days. A week later the flat was ready. During this week Andi burned the midnight oil – packing away different parts of our house in endless boxes.

The day before we were to move there was still work being done in the house. The day we moved the final painting and cleaning of the floors was still going on. But at 3 PM the truck and the 4 workmen came to our door. The shifting had begun.

All the boxes and the flotsam and jetsam of our Happy Valley home (minus a portion that we were able to give and horrors throw away) – all that was in boxes was transported out the door.

How some of stuff went out was a miracle. The sheer volume of it all meant that the truck had to do two journeys.

After it was all out – the Happy Valley flat – which has been our home for 6 long happy years – was eerily empty

Our stuff had all gone down and was stacked in the front of the building – and then packed in tight into the truck

They then drove the 2 km distance to our new house and unloaded everything. Most of the things went up by lift. But our elephant of a teak sofa would not fit in. So it was carried by hand. Four sets of hands and four backs did the work. Down 7 flights of stairs at Happy Valley – and up 6 flights to our new flat at Lok Upvan Ph. 1.

Needless to say a cheery chaos rained as the boxes kept flowing in.

Selvaraj – the owner of the truck told me that he had helped us shift when we moved into Happy Valley in early 2005. I vaguely remember him doing that. And then he said this us samay aap ka kum saman tha (you had less things then). Ouch – that hurt – and yet it was too true.

We tried to set things up – at least the basics – like the getting the gas hooked up.

And then it was suddenly 10.30 pm and time for our first supper.

We managed to set up the table and find the table cloth ….

… and then we sat down to eat our first meal in the new home. Food which we had cooked at Happy Valley and brought over with the boxes.

A tired foursome went to sleep in our old beds – but in a very new place

And a tired Daddy slept in later than usual the next morning (pic. by Enoch of course).

Over the next week the piles of boxes got smaller. The late nights continued. The war on grime was sounded again. Scrub, scrub.

On Tuesday night we had our first guests – Agnes and Annie who looked after Asha and Enoch while Sheba and I took the Bible study at Shanti’s home. On coming back we had a joyous meal together.

Finally on Friday most of the things were away.

We had a time of prayer to thank the Lord for His wonderful goodness in giving us a new place to stay – so close to our work.

We are so grateful for this new accommodation. We loved the Happy Valley flat – and are currently looking for someone to rent it from us – so that we can pass on the rent towards our new accommodation.

It is amazing to have shifted so quickly. Some things are still at loose ends – but all things considered it was a remarkably smooth transition.

We have been given such a god-like set of opportunities – to move when we want. How we want. So many of our fellow countrymen are stuck in the most horrible ‘homes’. Though we really enjoyed the 6 years at our Happy Valley flat – it is surprising how quick we were able to up and leave.

The pictures are now up. The books are (almost) all in place. Our family rhythms have started up in a new space. The key to it all – of course – is the amazing love that God has given for each other.

6 years ago, Enoch as a 2 year old stood up in the middle of the first night and said pointing to the door “home” “home.” He had spent the entire life till then in one place – the Vasant Vihar flat we were in then. Today Asha has moved 4 times in the 10 years of her life so far. How many more times will we (esp. the kids) move again? Who knows. What matters is that we are together.

And so we can go to sleep knowing that wherever we are – it is family that counts.