OUR NEXT CHAPTER

 

In 1997 Paul and I moved out here, 24 and 25 years old, expecting to spend 3-5 years broadening our horizons and experiencing life in a place very, very different than the southeast. Needless to say, we stayed a little longer than we intended, and here we are, nearly exactly 15 years later. For the past couple of years, we’ve talked between us about when it would be right to make the return, noting both career progress and the kids’ stages, and it always felt about as far off: “in a year, maybe 18 months.” Life bleeds by in such increments, and we have decided that, perhaps like starting a family, or any other similarly enormous choice, there is no perfect way to do this. We have a good opportunity now to act, so we will.

Next month our family is relocating cross country back to the southeast. My husband is in technology, and the RTP in North Carolina (a couple smaller towns near Raleigh are our specific targets) makes most sense to us.

It’s hard to leave, despite our excitement about what we are going to gain after so many years being separated from family, old friends, and the area that most says, “home” in our hearts. We’ve started to share our news with a few, but, I’m happy to say we’re blessed with so many we care about that I know reading this will bring on a wide range of emotions, both from those we won’t be able to see as often anymore, and those who we (finally!) will be seeing SO much more often than ever before. Paul and I realized it was important to use the summer to act on our desire to move to help the kids transition more easily to new schools, new friends, and time is going to fly by. I know that will mean we simply can’t celebrate as many friendships as we want before leaving, which makes me sad more than anything else.

Honestly, this timing, and our deciding over the past 2.5 weeks about some big changes means that it’s not going to be the cleanest move ever. There are logistics I’m not confident about from 3000 miles away, specifically, securing a home. We’ll rent while learning about a whole new area.  So, while I am definitely looking for homes in Cary or Apex now to get a good read on everything, I’m not sure whether we’ll really know where we’ll land until a week or two after we’ve already relocated--thank goodness for the packing, shipping, and storing options we have nowadays! If you just happen to have or know of a 3 BR home for lease, I’d appreciate the heads up, too, ya know… ;) Right now it’s logistics, logistics, logistics here… along with me still taking the kids to the beach everyday for Little Guards, because that makes everything easy: being out of the house for 6 hours a day. (eesh, 1.5 more weeks)

Anyway, that’s our story as it’s developing. Da doo run run run, da doo run run.