Temples in the Big Apple? How'd that happen?

Yes, folks. It's true. This branch of the Temple family is now broadcasting from the Big Apple. And let me tell you, it is HUGE. I felt small and insignificant just flying over the city. Excuse me, small portion of the city. Many of you will be scratching your heads wondering how it all happened. So let me give you the not-so-brief lowdown.

On Friday (June 13) we received an email from SGU saying that a position was available in Brooklyn starting June 30 and one in the Bronx starting July 7th. At first we weren't really considering them because we figured we'd wait till the August rotation and have more advanced notice to plan the move. But as we slowly got more information from the school indicating that even in August we would only get 3-4 weeks prior notice and that the NJ options basically all included moving amongst 3 hospitals, we decided Monday night to accept the Brooklyn position. We frantically started looking for apartments and tried to familiarize ourselves with the area with all the subways, buses, and info we could absorb into our shell-shocked brains. Tuesday we bought our tickets. Wednesday we paid for an apartment. Thursday we flew out. And Friday night we arrived in Brooklyn. It's been a whirlwind journey that's proven that anything is possible with faith, determination, the internet, and amazing friends. Natalie Richards looked at the sublet for us and then she and Cameron put up with the four of us in their living room for a couple of nights. We met their friends, Amy and Christian, who are awesome and so very helpful. Keahi's having a playdate with their kids today while we move into our new place. Then on Sunday we attended Park Slope Ward, which may be one of the youngest and nicest wards I've ever been to. There we see not only Enoch and Amy Palmer, who we were expecting, but Pammy, too. And we found out when we got here that Ben and Yuki Tano were also in that ward so it was such a comfort to see familiar faces. Jarom's face lit up when he saw Pammy. You could see it in his eyes--hey, I know you! So Sunday night we moved in with Pammy and the Palmer kids. We walked with the kids and one piece of luggage, intending to go back for the rest of the luggage after getting the kids to bed. That plan changed when it took us almost an hour to get there due to our Tomtom being low on batteries and our having to turn it on infrequently to get our bearings. But we got there at 9:30pm safe and sound, though bone-tired as well. Then Keahi (after maintaining his enthusiasm and adventurous attitude through 3 plane rides, a new place at the Richards, new kids, new ward, and constant requests to go on the subway) finally had a breakdown and cried for 40min to go back to Natalie and Cameron's house. IT was a rough night but Monday remedied all sorrows. Even though we have a huge to do list, the only thing we accomplished yesterday was picking up the keys to our new place and chatting with the owners for a couple of hours. The place is beautiful and the couple is amazing. They made us feel so welcome and comforted. Now we have imported food stores to check out and playgrounds to visit and know a neighbor handyman to call on for help. They even left their "jalopy" Jeep Cherokee for us to use while they're gone. I told her we must have different definitions of jalopy because theirs was far from my idea of the word. We're moving in today and will be staying in their fully furnished house with washer/drier, cable and high speed wireless internet for 2 months. We may have to be dragged out of there. So I guess I'd better get back to the moving. We're going to buy cell phones and a camera (our camera broke 2 days before we left Hawaii and our phone chargers got lost in transit) soon so hopefully we'll have pictures on our next post. So it's still-slightly-freaked-out-but-excited Temples signing off for now.