You can bet I’m going to keep mentioning this for quite some time especially with the holidays coming up. We’ve been talking about moving home for years and our number one reason was always the holidays. “Just think about Christmas at home, having Santa visit our own home, being able to go to all of the family gatherings and then go rest and sleep in our own house at the end of the day.” We both got a little sentimental the other day while standing at the bottom of the staircase, talking about where we want to put our Christmas tree, picturing the kids running down the stairs on Christmas morning.
Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I’ve been reminded a few times recently about how much of a challenge it was moving home. It was a whirlwind at the time, but now that we’re all settled in to a normal groove I’ve pretty much already forgotten that whirlwind. But I just had to send one final tax paper to the relocation services and my stomach turned remembering the mounds and mounds of paperwork, signatures, emails, faxes, copies, phone calls, and short deadlines between the company, relocation, and realtors. Then a coworker from Des Moines just emailed me that she’s moving to the Quad Cities and they’re having troubles getting their two little ones into daycare, they’re on a million waiting lists. I had spent months before this job researching daycares with coworkers that I knew in the QC only to end up on year long waiting lists too. This was by far the most challenging/stressful part of the move. We got really lucky and got all three into a good place, but it wasn’t until half a year later in August that we got into the daycare we really wanted. The waters have settled now, but looking back it was a bit of a bumpy road.
Now it just feels good to be here. We’re happy. We’re on familiar turf. We see people we know everywhere we go and it just makes us feel secure…truly at home. We see our families every week without the hassle of travelling with the kids and we love this. Plus we get to go sleep in our own beds after the visits; it makes our days and weeks, albeit busy, seem so much more “normal” and consistent. I’m glad we lived away for 10 years. I loved and miss Ames, and the drive home, which we made quite frequently, wasn’t too bad at all. But mostly I love how living away created such an appreciation for home in us. We love this place. Everything just feels so right now being here.
The day we closed on the new house, I took this video of the kids walking through their new home for the first time. Mitch was finishing up packing in Ames or possibly by this time was on his trek home. I hadn’t watched this in a while before this week. There’s actually 15 minutes of them exploring in fascination, but I cut it down. It makes my heart happy to watch this and also to see how it’s gone from a new house to our home in the last 8 months. The very end is my favorite.
Have I said “home” enough times in this post to get my point across?
There’s no place like home for the Holidays. J
4 comments:
The video made me cry and gave me warm fuzzies. I remember the unease of moving to a new home and wondering how Cole would adapt to it. Would he be mad at us for making him leave "his" home with "his" room.
So happy to know we'll never have to move again...until we're old and grey!!!!!
Okay - I just cried like a baby. That is AWESOME. Isn't it funny what the right place in the right location can do for you - HOME - an awesome thing.
The video got me a little teary. so happy for you guys.
Having you 'home' makes my heart happy. I seriously need to stop reading these at work cause holy tears!
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