This is such a bittersweet time for me and our family as we prepare to move to Denver. I think, overall, everyone is fine and will weather this well. We all are the type to focus on the future and take the good with the bad. I thought I would record some of the feelings we are having at this point:
5 Bad Things:
1. Hannah isn’t getting to complete her school year with Awana’s, Co-op, and her Drama class. While she loves to be homeschooled, she is a very social person and loves her friends and teachers in these activities. She is taking this very well; she shed a few tears, but her sense of adventure is taking over and she is eager to move to Denver and meet new friends and become involved in new activities. We have made such good friends in our homeschool community, it has been great to be with other families who hold the same values we do and who understand the ups and downs of homeschooling life.
2. We have been with many of the same doctors here in STL since we moved here. We use the same pediatrician who came to see Hannah in the hospital when she was born. They helped us prepare for and make sure Ellie was healthy when she came home from China. While they haven’t had a child adopted from Ethiopia before, they were up for the challenge and said they would be whatever help they could. I have already asked Ryan to check with folks at his new office and if anyone gives any glowing comments about their pediatrician, I want their number.
3. Our Adoption Specialist, Aimee, helped us through the whole process of completing Ellie’s adoption and has gotten us to this point waiting for Treasure. She knows her stuff paperwork-wise, is happy to help us through the shaky emotional stuff, and has such a satisfaction in helping families add to their families through adoption. One day right before we left for China to get Ellie, she came over to our house, sorted through all of our paperwork making stacks to sign now, sign later, explained “the brown envelope” for naturalization once we got back stateside. Her proficiency gave these first-time adoptive parents peace that we were prepared paper-work wise to go get our baby.
As you talk with folks about their adoptions, you hear about better or worse AS’s. I always considered it a blessing that we had a great one.
4. We had this home built and put so many of our ideas and touches into it. We are leaving this home. While I like our new house, it will take some time for it to “feel” like home. Of course, I want my children to be least affected by the suspended feeling you have after leaving one home and waiting for the new one to fit just right. Also, my flowers are going to wake up and turn green soon. I won’t be here to see them.
5. Most of all, we are leaving some very important people in our lives. Ryan and I have spent most of our marriage here. There are people who have invested heavily in our lives and whom we care about deeply. There are kids we waited for to be born who we won’t see grown up. There is one special family whose kids were very young when we moved here, and are amazing teenagers now. It would be great to see them as they begin to soar on their own.
OK – with a big lump in my throat, I am moving on to the positive. Someone told me just yesterday that I am that kind of person, so here I go with determination:
1. The Mountains, The Weather, The Scenery. Enough said.
2. Ryan is as pleased as punch to live in Denver. He said several years ago that the only place he would really be interested in moving to would be Denver.
3. Adventure -We are all pretty eager to explore our new area.
4. A smaller home – hopefully equals less time feeling frustrated over my lack of time for housecleaning and more freedom to read books/play blocks/go to the park with my kids. They won’t be this little for long.
5. Hmmm. I think the above 5 things put me in a gloomy mood, sort of matches the winter sky outside my window….hmmm, oh yeah, the over 300 days of sunshine that Denver boasts! That is, in fact, a good thing.