Two years ago, now, we moved to a new state with a newborn and a toddler(plus our dog!). How did we do it? A combination survivalism, tenacity, and optimism. But it was hard, especially over time. I wouldn't choose to do it again, but there is something exciting about taking on a new whole adventure. There's an equal fear to the spirit of adventure, that what if this was a big mistake? There are many such times where you really just don't know. Life is full of taking chances. Taking risks. We put an offer on our home the day after our second baby was born, sight unseen. I just had a feeling that we should go for it according to the pictures we saw, even though we certainly didn't know a lot about it yet either! And it was the right house for us indeed! I remember when, in springtime, we went to our new home for the first time and sat on empty floors as we dreamed about filling the space up. I sat on the floor nursing while our two-year-old played and the rains were falling upon the fresh buds outside.
When in survival mode, and setting up a new house, it's all about the essentials first. When the movers pulled in and dropped off all our boxes(soooo many boxes full of everything paper-wrapped), our two-year-old's toys were most important. She squealed with such delight as we pulled out toy after toy she'd thought were completely gone(from our old house). Next, we set up her room/nursery as best we could to make it feel like home for her. Then, our other basic bedroom and living area assembly, even if we rearranged something again later. Unboxing all our kitchen utensils took more time, becouse almost everything seemed to be individually wrapped by the movers! Getting all dishes and utensils put away into the cupboards takes time because it's tiresome to decide the best places for everything to go. But, tell yourself that you can always rearrange again later.
Okay, let's talk a little bit about the loneliness. Moving to a whole new area where you know no one, and are a bit overwhelmed not only with a new baby, new house, but also how/where to find all your resources....well it's a lot! We tried a subscription food box thing for a little while, which I enjoyed even though they are overpriced. I had my husband pick up groceries for the longest time(say after work) because it was too hard to accomplish grocery shopping. Thankfully we moved into a very friendly neighborhood where neighbors came to introduce themselves right away. So we began to know those around us a little bit and felt safe as they were wonderful people! You can't guarantee that everywhere you move so we were incredibly fortunate with such a family-friendly neighborhood. Our two-year-old made friends almost immediately with the little neighbor girl across from us...I still remember how she 'hid' in her red & yellow Cozy Coop car until she felt brave enough to get out and play! As for finding more community such as our church, and actual friendships, understandably this took more time. But it was so worth every endeavor. Though we were often sleep-deprived, we tried churches, we introduced ourselves to many people. We couldn't remember names, but we kept putting ourselves out there. There is an exhaustion in and of itself to do this, but in our case every effort we put in really paid off. Two years in, and we have a handful of what wonderful, closer friends who desire to 'do life' with us!
With many experiences in life, we are afraid of doing hard things. We often associate a hard thing as a bad thing. But if we face difficult experiences with courage and ask ourselves how we can grow from it, there is much to gain. So far, this move has been one of the hardest things we've ever done. When we left our old community, we had many friends we loved and did life with there. We'd loved our home and the incredibly rich outdoor life in that area, there's really none to compare. And so, we truly grieved many things once we moved. And that's another thing I'd say, is that if there's grief, give yourself lot's of time to grieve. I know that I needed lot's of time, while at the same time I was trying to adapt. Now two years later I have the perspective of appreciating the area where we live and it's many resources, etc., nothing replaces what we miss about our old homeland.
In moving to a whole new state 8 hours away, one of the challenging considerations was, could we still continue a lifestyle of what we loved to do as a family? Hiking, freshwater beach life, winter sports, gardening, foraging, biking and other outdoor activities. While the area was quite different where we moved to, we desired to find ways to keep doing what we love. All these things have been able to be continued, little by little, and it gave us grounding to find ways to do them. Sometimes we travel back to where we used to live to do them, sure! But where/when we can, we've adapted here.
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