A Fresh Start

We woke full of anxious excitement. Today, things change. Today, we move.

We hit the ground running and finished our last minute packing immediately after finishing our coffee. My mom and dad arrived bright and early to help with last minute details and picking up our U-Haul. We had THE BEST helpers! Our whole house was packed and stacked neatly in the moving truck in just under an hour and a half. After a quick bite to eat, we unloaded in about the same amount of time. The whole thing – from picking up the U-Haul to dropping it off – took about 6 hours; Far better than we expected! We are so overwhelmed with gratitude for the family and friends who selflessly gave up a Saturday with their own families to lug our boxes and furniture around on this disgustingly humid day. Thank you doesn’t feel like enough.

We spent much of the rest of the day settling in and trying to make things as normal as possible for the kids. From emotions to actions, stress is written all over them. After giving them naps and quiet time to decompress, we set about finding swim trunks so they could splash in the kiddie pool to cool off. David and Max had a blast, Titus cried and went off to play in a dry spot because he doesn’t like being wet or messy and Kira sat around giggling, squealing and looking adorable in her pink ruffley swimsuit. Classic. Dave and I were completely enthralled in just watching them play. They are all so different, but each one so dear to us. There aren’t even words…

Aunt Ashley was working the paramedic station just down the street today so we took a little drive down to see her. The boys {and Dave!} were captivated by her truck, her station, and the garage. David found a frog hopping around near a mop bucket in the corner and quickly caught it to show off to his brothers. It blesses my heart so much to be able to give my boys the freedom to do what boys do. They {and Kira} are why we made this move to the country. Kids need freedom. Kids need space. Kids need adventures and mud and learning opportunities and frogs that pee on your hands a little when you pick them up. Ok, no one really needs that. It’s actually kind of gross. But my point remains the same – living in the country will give our kids opportunities the city never could.

After saying goodbye to Ashley, we took the long way back home. We may or may not have driven down “our” road and looked at “our” house. Ok, we did. We totally did. We wondered out loud about who our new neighbors are, what they’re like and what they might think of us. We wondered just what kind of neighbors we’ll be. What impression will we make on them?  How might we like to go about introducing ourselves?

I made mention to the town’s mayor which got us talking about local politics. We took a quick tour downtown our new little city to see the town hall, mayor’s office, and library. Dave expressed interest in someday running for office here and getting deeply involved in the community. With his passion for growth and forward progress and his ability to look at all sides of a problem and possible solutions, I know he’d be perfect for it. We need to get settled first, but we’ve discussed this as a very real possibility in our near future.

In many ways this move feels like a fresh start for our family. We’ll be living in a new house, next to new neighbors, in a new city. The kids will have a new school, we’ll check books out of a new library and we’ll shop new locations of our favorite stores. For the first time ever, we’ll own our home and have new responsibilities like maintenance and yard work. Also for the first time, we’ll live well out of town in a rural setting and not in the middle of the city.

I grew up in this tiny town and in true small town fashion, not much has changed since then. Everything about it is comfortable and familiar. But yet, it doesn’t feel real that this is now my home. Maybe I feel unsettled from not having my own home and staying with my parents? Perhaps such a drastic move takes more time to adjust and settle in to? I feel I’m balancing in a state of limbo, not quite belonging here and not belonging there.

Praising God for his faithfulness and praying for a good night’s sleep.