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The story of the move: How it came about and packing

As I mentioned earlier, we have packed up and moved across the country!  I know this has come as a surprise to some people.  Honestly it was a bit of a surprise to us!  We had tossed the idea around a little, but I wasn’t entirely expecting it to actually happen.  The reasoning is pretty standard.  Pat had been looking around for a new job.  We had toyed with the idea of moving somewhere else.  I loved where we used to live, and really I didn’t want to leave it.  But what I just wanted isn’t what is most important.  What is most important is giving our family the best opportunities Pat and I can.  My only stipulation for moving was that I wanted to go somewhere we already had family.  It can be hard to move to a new city, especially with three small children.  I like to know I have people I can call on in an emergency who are required to help out. 😉

Towards the end of May Pat decided to take a look around at different options.  In June he applied to the new school he is now at.  We were excited when he got an interview, but we didn’t make any decisions or think too hard about it then.  I mean, who knew what would happen, why over think it?  The interview went well, so I admit I started to over think a bit.  It was a big move if we decided to go it.  Honestly I wavered a bit on whether or not I wanted Pat to get the job.  Getting it would be a great opportunity.  He would make a good career move.  We would have a good excuse to get a new place.  (I loved our home but our family was getting too big for it!) We could move to a new area and explore a great place we had heard good things about.  But it would mean leaving home.  I liked our life in our old place.  I felt like the kids and I were really hitting a good stride with friends, activities, and had a good routine in place.  Plus Ben was enrolled in preschool.  But those are things we could rebuild in our new place.  I decided to pray about it and see where God led us.

We found out at the end of June that Pat got the job!  I was so excited for him.  But then we had a tough decision to make- do we take a chance and go for it?  Or do we stay with where we were?  There were endless discussions about this.  I went back and forth a lot.  Pat was great and let me think on it.  He really took my input on how a big move like this would impact our family to heart.  Fourth of July weekend we made the big decision- Pat would take the job and we would move!  (Fourth of July is turning into a big time of announcements for us!)

Once the decision was made things moved quickly.  Pat had to be available for work starting July 26.  That did not leave us a lot of time to get things done!  First, we threw together our garage sale to get rid of as much as possible.   I had hoarded all our baby stuff after Ben was born, knowing we were going to have more kids.  As the girls were done with things I was just saving them until I could sell them in my moms group resale.  So we had a lot of things to go.  Then Pat had to make sure he had all his ducks in a row to head out.  As I mentioned earlier, I only wanted to move to places we had family.  Fortunately for us my aunt and uncle live in the area we moved to, so we were able to stay with them while we transitioned.  Pat left on his cross country drive on June 20.  After two weeks of sorting, cleaning, organizing, and selling, we still had a lot to do.

Once Pat was on his way it was up to me to, well, pretty much finish everything else up.  I had pack up our house and find a way to get all of us to the southwest.  I am so grateful that Meo and Omi were able to help out.  It is hard to pack with three little ones around!  Ben still needed attention, the girls needed attention.  Plus I had to pack the bedrooms.  This was hard because the only time I had was during nap time, which means someone was sleeping in the rooms!  Meo and Omi also had to come to Ben’s last swim lessons.  (They were parent and child lessons, so someone needed to be with the girls while I was in the pool with Ben.)  And in general, they just gave the kids the extra attention they needed during a stressful time.  (And me too!)

The kids were real champs during all this.  Ben missed Pat a lot.  We had a lot of talks about how it was okay to feel sad.  It was hard to have him so far away.  And moving would be very different.  I didn’t think he would fully understand that we were going away and not coming back basically, but I worked with him to help with this transition.

After three weeks of busily packing up our lives, we headed out!  I really appreciate all the help I got from family and friends during those busy three weeks.  Being the only parent present can be tough, even though I am used to staying home with the kids all day.  We managed to have some fun though.  Ben got really into his imaginative play.  He gave me some challenges with that- a lot of things I thought of to use in our costumes was already packed!  I think we did pretty well with limited resources though.  The girls did very well with all the changes too.  They were pretty happy to play on their play mat.  Poor things kept getting a smaller and smaller play area as the piles of boxes grew!  Overall it was a busy, kind of stressful time of packing and prepping.  But we got through it well and were ready to find our new home.

Coming up next: Road Trip and settling in!

Kim

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