We're here

So now we've finally had one full day in Providence. It's one of those experiences where at the end of the day, you're not sure what exactly happened that day but you feel exhausted and also wonder whether this is all a dream or a reality.

It was just such a full day, with so much energy on my end that I'm amazed I am still me.

First, the positive. I am so grateful and feel so blessed with everything we have in our life. This is a real house, which we have not experienced ever. We are in a house with 4 floors (as are most of the houses in this area). The first floor is the cellar, which is huge, and has our washer and dryer and the other family's washer and dryer too. It's hefker-ville, where we share almost everything. Then the Karp family lives on the next floor - two parents and their six kids. Then the next two floors are our's. We have a living room, dining room and another room - a study of some sort and lots of bedrooms and like a million closets. Anyone who knows what we've lived in before, will understand. The top floor is a former humongous attic, made into a real live-in space with closets, a bathroom and bedrooms. When we got here last night, we were all completely overwhelmed. The house has twists and turns and windy staircases with stained glass windows all over. I kept losing the kitchen. It's just not where it should be and it's sort of tucked in a corner. It's just so different than the open kitchen I came from. Everything is just plain strange. After we finally got the nervous, discombobulated kids to bed, one of them barfed all over her room with a path to the bathroom, which helped initiate our family to the house.

Penina is a story all on her own. We finally got her to actually go to sleep in Monsey and here we are all over again! At least she didn't scream her brains out this time, but she did take an incredibly long time to feel comfortable and be able to fall asleep in her crib. It's nice that she has a crib again instead of a pack n play. Then she just needed to test if Mommy really does show up, once every hour last night. It really felt like that -- I'd walk into her room at night, and her cries would die down and she'd smile, like "Oh ok, you DO come in. Cool." At 3am, she let me have a little break until 5am. That must be why I was nodding off all day like an old person, even in middle of conversations. "Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY, I was in middle of talking to you!"  Sorry, just taking a little nap.

The people in Providence! Wow, it's amazing that a place like this exists! Everyone is so sweet, friendly and wonderful and so happy to have another frum family move in. They just seem soo happy to have us here and so willing to go out of their way to do anything. One father sent over a letter with his son saying he can't talk because he had his tonsils removed today, but he's looking forward to meeting us soon. That was after I kidnapped his son. I met this cute boy who saw me outside and asked why I was going into a house who's owner moved. I explained that I lived here now. I asked him how old he was and when he said 4 1/2, I knew I had to have him meet Mo, who also is very particular about his "half". The boy came into my home very willingly. When I saw the note from his dad, I got scared, but it was so friendly!

Ok, gotta go tackle those boxes and suitcases....