My house has become a maze of boxes. Some of the stacks are taller than I am and we all find ourselves pressed up against the wall when walking down the hallways or through entrance ways into the room. We are about 10 days out from watching a moving truck take all of our stuff away. We have designed our potential itinerary fully at this point only waiting for a few of the last plans to confirm. I have decided to take a small 3 hour detour to visit some of my family before finding myself 18 hours away from them by car. After that I plan to hop over to NC, visit with my dad, hopefully attend a birthday party for our friends, and wait for the moving truck to call and let us know when they are ready to deliver. The window they have offered for delivery dates is larger than I would like, so having a place we can invade for a while is key.
I took my trip to Arizona on my own. We had decided to leave the girls with their grandparents while I crossed country to make the trip easier on me and to give them some time with their grandparents before being thousands of miles away. My husband was already working in Arizona and would not be there when I arrived. I showed up to a beautiful house that he had found to rent with new furniture to fill the rooms inside. He left a note on the counter welcoming me to my new home, adding little tidbits about the town and places to check out before he, the children, and the movers arrived later that week. On my first night he surprised me by driving home from work to see me knowing that he would have to wake up early to commute 1.5 hours back the next morning.
And suddenly you just know it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.
Living in Arizona was magical. We took trips every other week into the woods – camping, hiking, fishing and sight seeing all the natural beauty Arizona had to offer. The girls were not in school yet which allowed us to get lost in the land. So often we would find ourselves revisiting the places that we had already been because you could never tire of it’s beauty. We had full seasons, snow and mild summers. Friends and family enjoyed spending their vacation times with us due to the desirable location and convenience of being outside of Phoenix. I saw more in the months that I lived in Arizona than I had seen in a lifetime and witnessed amazement through the eyes of my children, watching as their love for adventure blossomed.
Blessed are the gypsies, the makers of music, the artists, writers, dreamer of dreams, wanderers and vagabonds, children and misfits. For they teach us to see the world through beautiful eyes – Jacob Nordby
The day that we learned that it was likely that we would be forced to relocate to New Mexico seemed unbearable. A wave of denial rushed over me and I would not accept this notion until officially confirmed. I went about my normal routine, planned little trips of places to visit in the area and continued the process of enrolling the girls in school for the fall. A couple weeks later it was finalized. Relocation was non negotiable. We would be transferring in a couple months. I sank into my emotions and let out a cry. I spent hours in my bed trying to bring a strong face forward to present to the girls when informing them of this move. I am not sure how I mustered the strength, but once I found it I took a deep breath, remembered all the things I had to be grateful for and presented the news with enthusiasm and hope.
Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.
Karpidiem 