On a recent walk at our new home on Peningki Hill, I began wondering to myself how many times we’ve actually moved since we left Haiti, and how long we’ve been uprooted until we’ve just now “settled” into our own space. Unpacked our bags. Put up pictures. Put holes in the wall. Painted the walls. Settled in. What does that timeline actually look like?
Well, it looks like almost exactly 6 months tomorrow: From 5/7 – 11/1, that’s a week short of six months. For six months we have been “homeless”, living out of our suitcases and between permanent homes. We’ve lived in a total of 12 locations. I think all of these locations involved moving most or all of our “stuff.” These 12 locations don’t include other occasions when we overnighted and just took some of our things “en route”: 14 or so other places we camped or spent the night. I guess that’s 26 total different locations for overnights.
Seven of those we’ve had “to ourselves,” five of those have been shared. We lived with: Gramma C in Bradenton, Jennifer and Nick in L.A., Grandmommy in Nampa, with the Hewes in Boise, and with the Stricklands in Indonesia. We also overnighted with the Mays, the Lyons, in Bend, the Obriens, the Williamsons, in Derawan, in Maratua, and in Binuang. And in an airport. And camped in five locations. That equals the total of living in about 12 places (“settling in temporarily”), and staying overnight “on the road” in about 14 places. So moving, on average, about twice a month, and then staying somewhere on the road about once from each location.
It feels exhausting to write about; it was exhausting to live. I sat down and thought through each move and each location partly in order to reassure myself – no wonder it feels so good to finally settle in to a semi-permanent home. At least two years here, well, about one year and six months at this point. But what a relief.
We are finally more “home,” more “settled” than we’ve been anywhere else in six months. It’s a relief.
That’s a lot of traveling. Here are the details all listed out:
2025 – Six months of living uprooted
- 5/7 – Moved Pignon, Haiti to Fort Pierce
- 5/11 – Fort Pierce > Bradenton
- 5/16 – Bradenton > Orlando
- 5/24 – Orlando > MAF Apartments
- 6/6 – MAF Apartments > LA
- 6/10 – LA > Grandmommy’s in Nampa
- (During this time, camped or overnighted in (Mays, Baumgartner, Lostine River, Bend, Lyons, Williamson, O’Briens +7)
- 7/28 – GMs in Nampa > Hewes in Boise
- (During this time, we camped or overnighted at (Bogus, Trinity Lakes, Station Creek) +3
- 9/12 – Hewes, Idaho to Kostrevas in Indonesia (+1 Jakarta)
- 10/5 – Kostrevas > Stricklands
- (Overnighted in Derawan, Maratua, Binuang) +2
- 10/26 – Stricklands > Kanagys
- 11/01 – Kanagy’s to Peningki
(Other important dates:)
- 9/15 – Arrived in Tarakan
- 9/29 – First day of classes (in Kostrevas)
- 10/6 – First day of classes (in school)
- 11/1 – Moved into apartment