I have started at least three blog posts over the past few weeks, but my mind was too scattered. Big news: we moved! We are now making our residence in Florida, sharing a home with my mom and dad in the Tampa Bay area. We decided to make the move for varied reasons, but the main one being that with our growing family and Joshua looking ahead to graduate school, it would be a big help financially if we spent this season living with family. And having help close at hand when you have two "2-and-unders" is always a plus. I'm pretty sure my parents are already itching for a vacation. :)
Truthfully, though, Joshua and I are opposed to neither living in community (i.e. sharing a home) nor living with family. Many other cultures do this, and it was common in American culture until the past few decades. It was wiser for us not to get into a truckload of debt, but I think in the long run we will look back and believe it was wiser relationally for our family to make this choice. Multigenerational community is valuable. Sharing a home has a unique way of smoothing out our problem sin-areas like sandpaper has a unique way of smoothing a wood surface. Nobody likes the work of dealing with those personal rough spots but everyone appreciates the end result. A lot of people have asked, "How do you think it will be, living with your parents?" It's an interesting question to answer. I haven't lived with my folks for thirteen years and now I'm moving in with a husband and two children. A lot has changed; we have all individually changed, that's for certain. My answer is that I think it will be just fine. I am looking forward to so many shared experiences and I am really happy that my kids will grow up in their young years having a close relationship with Nana and PopPop.
I wondered if I would be really homesick for Asheville, but so far I've been too bewitched by Florida's autumn beauty. It is cool and wonderfully sunshiny. It is beautiful. And we've eaten at Sonny's BBQ almost ten times in the few short weeks since we've arrived.
Someone prayed for us before we left that if we felt happy we wouldn't feel like it was "too soon." I really resonated with that prayer and was thankful for it. Our years in Asheville were such a wonderful time in our lives and the birth of our marriage and young family-- sometimes it feels disrespectful to not grieve appropriately for the loss. But I grieved a lot before we left; probably why I couldn't finish a blog post. I miss our friends and Christian and Michelle a lot. But I am embracing the surprising amount of joy that I feel in this new locale. Life is good.
