It's Moving Day to a Bigger Convent With a Chapel!

One year has almost been completed by the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity at All Saints Catholic School, which is part of Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church. The two Franciscan Sisters arrived last year on July 16th.

This is the first time the parish and school have had Sisters so they had to find a house to rent for a convent and furnish it. They did a great job with renting a home almost completely furnished. But now with the addition of a 3rd Sister for the new school year it was time to find a bigger house and one with a room that could be used for a chapel and hopefully, the house could be closer to school. The first convent was closer to Fort Huachuca, the Army Fort, but two stop lights and a 10 minute ride to school every day.  After looking at all seven houses for sale in the neighborhood of the school it was decided to go more than a mile radius from school for something more affordable.

The new convent home was found on the final day of the deadline-the Friday before the pastor took off on his summer vacation to his home country of the Philippines. The house selected was one not looked at before but just became available and it WAS THE ONE!  The new convent is located only two miles from school, four minutes by car with only 3 stop signs, not stop lights, from school, ( a big time difference between a stop light and a stop sign).

 Our Lady of the Mountains Convent
1st Window on left is chapel & other two windows-bedrooms

View of our neighborhoodHuachuca Mountains

 

The new convent has three bedrooms and a lovely room for a chapel. The living room, dining room and kitchen are much bigger. We now have a table that seats 6, not just 4 so we can have more than one guest for dinner now! Yeah!!!

Now it was an empty house not partially furnished. So a wish list was put into the parish bulletin of what the Sisters would like/need for their new convent home. The response by the parishioners was overwhelming!! Their generosity could not be matched. A trailer was parked on the church parking lot for the parishioners to put their donations of chairs, lamps, linens, statues, large crucifx for chapel, pictures, towels, end tables, desks, candles, clocks etc. into - and they did!

Parishioners would go to yard sales and call me up and say, "Sister Carol I  saw this. .. can you use it? I will get it for you. That's my donation." One Saturday, I was out for my early morning walk when a parishioner called me up and said he was at a yard sale of a home of a very strong Catholic couple and they have beautiful statues, Catholic reading materials and he said to the owner-"Sister Carol would love these items for the new convent!" They told him what ever I wanted would be free. Their mother would be happy to have her religious items in the convent. The parishioner picked me up and I spent an hour at the yard sale getting the most beautiful statues that I would only admire before in a store, books for our convent library, pictures and she also had some very nice kitchen and dining rooms items - plus a whole corner in the garage of Christmas items - some never been used. I filled the car up and was thrilled for their generosity and the early morning phone call.

Another parishioner called me to say there was an estate sale not far from school, " Be sure to go! I know the family and they will give you a deal. " The pastor, Fr. Ariel, and I went and were able to purchase a beautiful dining room set for six people, a table for chapel to have the tabernacle on and some end tables and a set of dishes. The family was happy that the Sisters were getting their family dining room table as it holds lots of family memories, espeically the holiday dinners. One never thinks of all the family sharing at a dining room/kitchen table.

One school parent played "Storage Wasr in Tucson" and won. She called me up afterwards and asked if I wanted part of the contents - 2 new black leather couches, a buffet and 2 new lamps. I said, YES! And thank you! 

Some parishioners gave me money and said to buy what was needed. :):):) It's coming in handy.

When I returned on Saturday morning from retreat at Picture Rocks in Tucson, the parish secretary and I went to take a look at the new convent to kind of get an idea of where to put things when school parents help me move on the next day. I had only seen the convent just one time and had forgotten exactly how it really looked - as was obvious when I kept going down the wrong hallway. This home has three hallways not one like the former convent. Donna, helped me move in some of my own clothes etc before the big move of furniture on Sunday. Here are some pictures of the "before the move".

 Back Yard

 Bedroom Hallway

 Kitchen

 Living Room/Dining Room

Master Bathroom / Closet 

Sunday mornig at 8:00am school parents and one of the students met me at the old convent and we began loading up trucks and my car with items. We made several trips back and forth. .

Here is what our new convent looks like. There is still pictures to be hung, a floor rug to be bought for the living room and the chapel needs some items yet also. But otherwise it is looking good and homey.

The 1st - Our Lady of the Mountains Convent Chapel  

Living Room  looking into Dining Room and Kitchen (4 legs up- buffet being repaired) 

Beautiful table bought at an estate sale

 Living Room -couch from "Storage Wars"

Front Entrance - chapel door to right

 Kitchen

Dining Room to Living Room

3 Bedrooms

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3 - Bedrooms  

Our LandLord and LandLady - Ramon and Dot

Super Nice People and Very Helpful!  We are blessed to have them

Sitting in my wicker rocking chair from a yard sale.

 

Ready to head out for vacation in Wisconsin!