My homeless journey.. The Relocation!

On January 2, 2022, myself, my son and daughter packed a few suitcases each, as many clothes and personal belongings we could, hoped on a bus, and started a new journey to what I hoped would be a better life for all of us. I never really told many family members, which maybe was a mistake, but at the time I thought it best since I was already afraid and unsure about the outcome I really didn't want anyone to try to convince me otherwise. So we told about 5 or 6 people and headed out. The first stop was Memphis TN, and since this was January, we were basically in the dead of the winter. In Memphis, what was supposed to be a 30 min overlay, turned into almost an entire night. This was the first of many scary moments to come, this was when I first started to question my journey. I secretly thought to myself, man Lord are you trying to tell me something already? The bus driver was lacking enough drivers to get everything straighten out. Just when we were about to start looking into hotel rooms, refunds, and other options a driver shows up, we were hours behind schedule but at least we were back on track, so I'm thinking, ok God I guess this is it. The rest of the trip went fairly well until we made it to Chicago, IL where once again, buses were behind schedule this time because of the weather, we had hit the snow and brutal cold weather that we knew nothing about, but we were here to give it our best shot!

after the long hold up at the Chicago bus station, we were blessed with an "upgrade" e didn't realize it at the, but they gave us train tickets to complete our trip. We had never ridden on a train so I didn't know what to expect, but when I tell you it was extremely nice! The seats were bigger, more comfortable, more space and just nicer all the way around. That was one of the best parts of the whole trip truth be told. So, we finally made it to the train station in St Paul MN, we were cold, sleepy and simply exhausted. However, this was not even the end of our journey. Our final destination was supposed to be small town called St Peter MN and was a little over a hour away from our final bus stop for the night. So here we are in this new city, new state, new culture! It's almost midnight if it's already. I have a tired 17 and cranky 7 year old and I don't even know what to do myself. Yes we did have family in the vicinity but because I moved without telling so many people I didn't have any contact information on the majority of them and if I did I felt it would be to late to try to contact anyone. So I did the next best thing I thought to do. Search for an Uber and try to get a hotel. Even thought it's slightly after midnight the bus would leave at some point early in the morning and we would have to check out early I thought well at least let us get somewhere safe and warm and get a good nights rest. So I was able to find an Uber thankfully, or so I thought but the Uber couldn't find us. Looking back I feel like that was the grace of God and protection from the unknown because I have heard very many horror stories about Ubers/lyfts in that area. Once that Uber came to the station, said he couldn't find us and left and canceled the ride at the time I was afraid and didn't know what to do. Here we are with about 6 bags and suitcases between the 3 of us and stuck In a train station where we have never been in our life after midnight with no where else to go or to turn.

As we walked tired and aimlessly down the halls we ran into a security guard who inquired about our situation. I explained to him I had tried to get an u er to take us to a hotel to rest for the night so that we could wait for a bus to take us to our final destination in the morning. He examined that since it was so late and the hotels in that area were so expensive that we could just stay there for the night. This was definitely not part of my original plan and it was not how I wanted to start our "new journey" but my babies were tired, options were few and this was the least expensive and quicker one so looked like we would be spending our first night on our new adventure in the train station. The security guard opened up a small closet that had a lock on it and allowed us to Put all of our suitcases in it to give us peace of mind about them, and most the doors of station were already locked for the night unless someone let you in you were out, and the security guard said he would be working all night. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice for a train station I just had no intentions of spending the night. However, even thou this was not the most comfortable setting, if I had to choose this versus being in the cold streets with my babies, I'd do it all over in a heartbeat. That night/ morning my oldest sat in chairs right next to each other and the youngest sat in my lap and halfway into his as well and I watched them both sleep as best they could given the circumstances. As a mother I did not rest that night, I may have dosed off a few times to catch a drift but by no means did I sleep or get any rest this night. Aside from My mind being all over the place with what was to come,

slightly terrified of the new surroundings and being overwhelmed with the circumstances I could only sit and watch the clock, my babies and my surrounds waiting for "morning" in more ways than one!