the amazing packing miracle

Just before six last night, I sat on the front porch steps and watched Jessie confidently push her stroller full of girls across the street and out of sight while Breanne skipped and ran and walked alongside her.

Jack and I knew that Jessie and Cory had a lot of stuff in that little house of theirs. We didn't know how all of that stuff would ever get into that one truck especially since Cory is in California and none of our family was available to help with the move.

But just a minute or two after Jessie left, I noticed a man walking towards her house and quickly realized he was there to help her pack the truck. Then I noticed another man coming from the opposite direction and then a couple with their three boys and then another two men and more boys and more couples and more men and more and more. The first man introduced himself (Carlos, maybe?) and asked if I was Jessie's mom, which is when the tears started. I nodded and suggested that perhaps they could start by hauling all of the boxes to the front yard. The increasingly larger group of people moved into the house and the moving had begun.

Maybe three minutes after she left I saw Jessie coming back towards her house sans stroller and girls. Coming from the other direction were Shi and her dad, Steve (aka packing genius extraordinaire). Already there were at least 30 people moving in and out of Jessie's house carrying boxes and furniture. Everyone was laughing and moving and helping and talking and joking together. Shi and her dad climbed up into the truck and began organizing, calling out for different items, carefully stowing each thing, and all the while, this mass of helping humanity kept growing until there were more than 50 people, maybe as many as 75, all helping and laughing together. There were probably four or five couples who were Jack's and my age, but most of the people were closer to Jessie's age. All of them were full of energy and enthusiasm and a desire to help this family, this mom and her girls.

I have never before seen such an outpouring of love and support. I am weeping again as I type this and remember again how overwhelming it felt to see such love for my daughter and her family. Over and over people told me how much they love her family and how much they will miss them.

Meanwhile, back in the truck, Steve and Shi were working away, carefully selecting and wrapping and tucking and stowing, until somehow, in just three hours, everything Jessie and Cory and their family own was moved from inside their little home, to their front lawn, and into the truck, ready to be transported across a couple of states to their new home in California, where Cory has already met people in their new ward who are excited to meet them and help them unload that big truck and settle in to their new home.

After a quick stop at McDonald's, we headed to our house for a sleepover, and after today together and another night sleeping here, we girls will load into the minivan and drive west.

But last night, because she is the mom, Jessie collected everything they needed for a night at gramma's and gathered her girls and their stuff and brought them into my house where she quickly got everybody into jammies and got them drinks and helped them settle down for the night, and when Janey was having trouble settling down, Jessie snuggled her on her lap on the couch until she fell asleep and then lay her down and climbed into the top bunk to sleep herself. But, ever-vigilant mom that she is, then woke at the sound of Jack up in the night, and then, unable to get back to sleep, moved to a couch to wonder if she'd remembered to close a window we'd opened to run a cord outside to a drop light to help with the packing.

This morning, she was up early, feeding her girls, starting a load of laundry, heading back to their house one more time to finish up the last bit of leaving.