THE MOVE

In the midst of all the teams, a cold virus, and the construction at Restoration Ranch we also moved from the apartment where we had lived for the last 10 1/2 years. I think that is the longest I have ever lived in one place in my life. My father was military so we moved a lot when I was a kid. A decade ago a wonderful Christian lady and her husband offered to rent us their upscale condominium according to our middle of the road budget. It was a gift from God and its timing was perfect. The condo is in the center of Santo Domingo and was perfect for us since we didn't have an automobile during those early years. However, the very thing that made it so perfect is the thing that had begun to make it less than desirable. Being in the center of a city of 4 million is interesting! We actually grew to like city living in spite of the fact we thought we would never get used to it. As the city continued to grow we began to see more and more high-rise apartment towers taking the place of single family dwellings. On our block alone we could count about 14 such undertakings. The results are that in the same place where a single family lived and had their one or two vehicles there is now a multi-family tower with 80 or so families, each with their car or two or even more. The pollution in our neighborhood began to show the effects of the increased traffic. Because of the amount of construction occurring, we also have had an influx of large diesel trucks pouring out contamination. We don't have the same pollution laws here that we have in the States! Anyway, to shorten the story a little, we had been thinking that we'd like to make a move. We had two major factors inhibiting us; the security of the 24 hour guard at the apartment building and the fact that when we traveled the building administrator paid all of our bills in our absence. Recently we had a family visiting us here, and we housed them with our staff members Greg and Melynda Burge. One day as we took them 'home' we noticed a rental sign on the house that sits right behind the Burge house. To be continued...