2 years ago today........

October 18, 2007

It's been 2 years today!!! 2 years ago we loaded up our U-Haul(s) (I laugh at that b/c we had to get an unplanned 2nd truck the morning we left b/c we couldn't fit all our stuff in the one truck) and headed north. We left our first home, we left the great state of Texas, we left our friends, and moved to our new home. We hadn't yet seen our new home, but drove north on the faith that all the emails and money exchange was really real and drove to our rental house--sight unseen. We didn't know what our new actual "home" would look like for 2 months, but we had a short-term house that we could fill, temporarily, with our boxes. We unloaded some of the boxes, only to re-pack them 3 months later and move again.

I remember doing well with everything until we were just about to walk out the door. I sat down on our fireplace and I cried....I cried like a crazy woman! That was our first home, the first place that was really ours! We lived there for 9 years! The door we walked out of was the same door we had walked through with our 2 babies when we first brought them home. It was the door that we'd watched our puppy scamper through the first time, and all those times after when we would go on walks through our neighborhood. It was the door that we walked in each night after work and felt the calm wash over us as you realized you were "home". That door that we'd walk out of was the same door that the mean people broke in and stole some of our stuff. That door was the same that allowed all our family and friends into our home to be a part of our lives. That door that stood for so much.......and we were about to walk out of it for the last time. It really made me sad to know that I was leaving a place in which I had made such wonderful friends. It was a place that allowed us such incredible experiences at jobs both for Skip at UST and for me at SMG. We loved our church and developed some lasting memories there of both friends and major life events including the baptisms of 2 of our children and our Goddaughter, Anna. We had developed our Texas lives there, and it was hard to leave.

My children were younger then. Emerald was 2 1/2, which is Calvin's current age. She seems so much older now. Calvin was just 8 months old, younger than Zachary is now. He was just a baby! We brought both of them home from Gladney to that house. They both were born in Texas. I remember a time when we had to tell our adoption agency that we were taking them across the state line. Now, we were moving them far, far away. It was in that kitchen that I had received both of those miracle phone calls........."You have a baby girl/boy, you can pick them up Thursday." I won't ever forget standing in my kitchen, talking with our case worker, never expecting her to say those words! It's weird to think that in these 2 years we've added another miracle to our family!

One of the major reasons we moved 2 years ago was b/c we always knew that we didn't want to raise our children so far from our family. We hadn't planned to raise them in the "big city". Both of us grew up in smaller Kansas towns, and we wanted that for our kiddos. We wanted to be closer to our future nephews/neices if they should ever come around (and they did :) thankfully). We wanted our children to get the opportunity to see their grandparents more often. We have been blessed in our move to have found a wonderful job opportunity for Skip, a fantastic location to raise our children, a beautiful (if you can overlook the clutter of toys) home, the opportunity to be close to Skip's brother and his family (which thankfully were there to help us on that day 2 years ago), and nice, new friends.

We miss our old home, our friends, our Texas opportunities. We miss being able to attend Gladney events with the kids. We miss our old church and wonderful priests we became close to down in Texas. I personally really miss seeing many of my former students who are growing up way to fast (thank goodness for Facebook). I miss being around my old mom's group and the many, many awesome friends I made through that group. I miss all our other friends, you know who you are! I know Skip misses his old job--especially the opportunities it offered in the golf department (aka playing in Bandon, Oregon). Life brings changes......good or bad........life brings changes. We are happy with our choice and don't think we would have changed a thing about our decision (unless we could have brought all our friends with us). 2 years ago we walked through that door, closing it behind us and opening another door to our future.