I was talking to one of John's colleagues once, and he told me, "The mothership is calling." It was an eerily accurate description of how it feels when we are called to relocate once again. John got the call in December and started working in Virginia at the beginning of January. Usually things go smoothly during these transitions. The company presents a great package that allows us to move without too much disruption. But this time they called in January, and the boys and I decided to finish out the school year. It's been HARD. All caps.
I spent a couple months preparing the house for selling. This is the oldest house we have ever owned, so that made it a little more complicated than past moves. Thankfully the house was under contract within a week. But then the buyer's inspector came and by the time I got home there was already water beginning to drip through our spare bedroom's ceiling. Of course this happened on a Sunday. Thankfully, I have the best neighbor in the world who came to rescue me. That became a stressful situation that took three weeks to mitigate.
The boys have been rock stars. They've had to sacrifice a lot. They have only seen their dad three or four times since he moved to Virginia. Luke handles that pretty well because he is still a mama's boy, but Jack thinks John is the greatest person on Earth (which he is), so the separation has been hard on him. Jack has taken to texting and video chatting his dad a lot. They joke around, and occasionally John delivers the "we need you to shape up" conversation that kids Jack's age need.
My family has been incredibly supportive. My sisters and Megan call a lot so I don't ever feel too lonely. My brother and his family just happened to come through Atlanta, so they spent a day and a half with us. We took a trip to Knoxville to see Annie, Shane, and Ensley (I still feel bad about Luke vomiting all over your house, Annie!). Eric and Betsy have been willing to take John in because their house is halfway between northern Virginia and our house. Kathy and Megan sold a puppy to my neighbor and used all the proceeds to come spend a long weekend with me, the boys, and Linda. And now my sisters are coming to watch my kids so I can take the most needed vacation in the history of vacations. I love my people. If you can't count on your people when times are hard, you've chosen the wrong people and it's time to pick a new team.
The boys and I have had a lot of fun, too. We've figured out how to spend quality time together. And, we've also figured out how to manage a calendar when there's only mom. Let's just say there has been cutbacks.
We're on the tail end of this shitshow adventure. I'm pretty sure God used this as an opportunity to show me that my life is better when John and I are together. John and I have had a lot of discussion about moving forward and how we need to balance work and family a bit better. This concludes the whiniest blog post ever written.
Here's some photos of some of our favorite times over the past few months.
