I haven’t been meaning to be a big tease, I just haven’t had the opportunity to write this out, and I’ve had a few other more passionate blogs to regurgitate first.  I’ve been eluding to some big changes in our lives and I’d like to share.  We’re moving!

My wife got a full time Air National Guard position and has decided to make the military her full-time career focus.  This is huge news itself as she has been the HR director at her current job for almost 10 years, really the entirety of her professional life.  It’s a big, huge step for her but one she’s always wanted.  It’s more financial security for our big family.  This past year she’s felt very torn between the two professions and took the courageous step to let go and move onward and upward.

This does, however, mean she’ll be working in the next town over, and while that doesn’t seem like a big deal, around here the town over means 50 miles of Interstate and the worst stretch of I-80 in the country.  A lot of people do this drive, but it’s not the safest thing to do.  It also eats up a couple hours of the day, not to mention the dozen or more days a year the road is closed due to weather, and the dozen or more times a year you decide not to risk it and stay near work in case the road closes.  This is not how we envision our married life, and life with our children.  So we’re moving there.

It’s big news to us.  It’s another change.  It’s another disruption.  It’s another beginning.  It’s exciting and sad and simple and complicated.  It means not living around the corner from the dads.  It means a more traditional divorce environment.  It means more planning, more organization, more meetups, and less hangout time.  However, it’s not across the country and we’ll still be seen around town much of the time.

It’s not like when we were young and these things like new jobs and moving held nothing but adventure and excitement.  It’s a mixture now.  Of letting go, of complications, of relationships.  At first we were sad that this wasn’t all excitement and adventure.  Then we realized it can be both positive and negative, and that’s OK.  That’s life.  It doesn’t point to it being “the right” or “the wrong” decision.  It’s just life.  We also don’t have to only feel excitement or sadness.  We can feel both at once.

We as a family are excited.  We are excited that we finally got to house shop and find our dream home together.  We are excited about making friends that only know us in the present, and not our pasts.  We are excited to form new circles, couples friends, find our niche in this new place.  We are excited that the kids will have different opportunities.  That they’ll be able to grow and learn new life skills.

We know we are complicating the dads’ lives.  We know this makes all the boundaries a little stronger.  We know we are leaving a community we have grown up in, friends we love, places we know.  We love our little community.  We’re adding to our plates by buying and selling homes, fixing up rentals, getting things rented, and starting over.

But join us in feeling excited, scared, sad, and joyous with this life change.  Support our family as we stretch and grow and figure things out.  That we strike our new path together and that it is a positive change for all!