Saying goodbye is a hard thing to do......

As much as I love my parents, nothing can touch my heart like the way they adore my kids.  Saying goodbye for a year means that there are no soccer and flag football games to attend, no Thanksgiving or Christmas celebrations together and no spontaneous overnighters with Nana and Papa.  Saying goodbye was really, really hard on all of us, but of course, my pops finds ways to make us feel so loved and special.

 

Measurements in the garage and estimates on how much each child will grow in a year.

 

And photos of each child to document the years changes.

Alex and Hayhay on one more boat run

Saying goodbye to friends isn't any easier.  We have a "parallel family" where all three of our kids are the best of friends, as are the adults.  We see each other regularly and over the past 10 years, have become as tight as family to each other.  Our 10 year old boys, in particular, are very close.  Watching their embraces and then tears was heartbreaking.  Two boys, who treat each other as brothers (except they've never fought in the 10 years they've been alive) are both struggling as the early days go by.  Alex with quiet edginess, Haydin with open sorrow.  That's a tough one to watch. Luckily, in this day and age, texting and facetime, we'll be able to keep in contact a lot easier.

Can I say trepidation?

As excited as we are, I still wake up at 2am with a feeling of trepidation.  A fear of what may happen, a fear of leaving what we know behind, a fear that our kids may miss their friends more than we think.....it changes as the night draws on.  And yet, we continue to dream and plan this adventure.  What helps tremendously is thinking back to what drew us here.  I work as a speech therapist in home health.  I cannot tell you how many times I hear, "time goes so fast", "enjoy your kids while they are young", "I wish I had done that".  Over and over again I'd tell Matt about these patients who inspired me to be and do more than I thought I could.  Luckily, I married a guy who felt the same way.  We've got very little time with these three munchkins and they still like us, want to be with us and are as excited as we are to "live outside the box" while "living inside the box".  We also followed a family very similar to us who did this exact adventure for two years, traveling with their three kids.  We continue to follow their travels, even this summer, to Alaska.  They are leaving a road map of sorts with great descriptions of places they've stayed, places to avoid and inspiring posts.  Finally, we know that this is our "sweet spot" of time with the ages of our kids and with Matt being able to work from anywhere in the states.  This time, too, will pass.  So, we are stepping out in faith and dreaming of what is to come.

In front of the house that we built, our kids grew in and we sold to embark on this year's adventure.