“This is my temporary home”

 

“This is my temporary home” refers both to a song by Carrie Underwood, and the Residence Inn at Bishop’s Gate in Mt. Laurel.  Our family (including the cats) moved in this evening.  It took forever to get settled (I’m sitting down to do some emails for work at 11:15) but we’re glad to have somewhere to be!

We drove past the house tonight – there is fencing up around the middle of the building, but the stairs to our condo are outside the fencing.  That brings simultaneous relief and disappointment – we’re glad that it looks like we’ll have access to our things but disappointed that we may be back in the house before the major demolition is done (which means panicked cats and scared kids with all the noise literally on the other side of our living room wall!).

The insurance company is footing the bill for our hotel (and covering the fee for Jack and Milo to be with us).  We have  2-bedroom suite so that we aren’t tip-toeing around the kids (which wouldn’t work and would leave us with no sleep).  We’ll see how work goes tomorrow!

Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be meeting with one of the 5 (yes, five) people from the insurance company that I’ve spoken with today.  The plan is to get consent to go into the house and look around to start determining what will need to be done before we get back in.  That meeting (and opportunity to be back in the house) will determine a lot of what happens over the next few days.

The kids are doing terrific.  Josiah and Lilly will both be so disappointed once we go back home.  In the last 48 hours, they’ve gotten to visit both of their grandparents, eaten out, and been otherwise spoiled.  They both had a blast checking out the hotel room and will be excited to wake up and see the cats here with us.  A few people have brought us toys – we’re probably close to toy overload now.

We can’t say enough (which is why we’ll keep repeating it) how we appreciate the calls, texts, and other messages we’ve received from you.  We appreciate your offers to help!  I hope at this time tomorrow, I’ll be able to let you know more about what we are in for over the next few days (and if/how we’ll need some help).  So far, we’re thankful that our things look okay and the insurance company is taking care of the things we need from them.

Goodnight-
Steve, Bethany, Josiah, Lilly, Jack, and Milo

[No pictures today – we’ll get some tomorrow!]