I am 35 years old and in my childhood I lived in 3 homes that I can remember. All of these homes where within 20 miles of each other, in fact, one was down the street from the other. I never owned a passport until my honeymoon and I think I flew on a plane a small handful of times. When I started working again after children, I refused to get in an Uber on a work trip. I thought my co-workers were nuts for getting in a car with a stranger! In the South, that's how you wind up on a Dateline Special. I actually told them that if the driver overtook us or tried to kidnap us, we needed to piss ourselves to leave our DNA behind.
You can fact check that.
My children are working on home #4 in their tiny life span. They already have a passport and a plane trip is no biggie for them. From Quantico, to North Carolina, then South Carolina, and most recently to the sunny beaches of California, my children have seen both coasts and loved every place we have called home. Packing up, saying good bye and moving on is just our way of life. What I have come to love most of this disposition, is that my tiny humans are genuinely "cool." Because they have seen and done so much they walk around with an effortless bravery that I never had as a kid. They are ready for adventure always.
So, why does this matter? It matters because I am about to take a page out of their book. I am about to take on our next chapter and see the move through "kid glasses." (Please do not confuse this with beer goggles, I am sure those will come at some point.)
When Zac called with the news that he was asked to go to London, I sat down in my hallway and started to cry happy tears, "Wow, that sounds like such a fun trip!." Then, reality set in, and so did real tears..."Wow, this isn't a trip, this is a move." Then my crazy brain set in. "How much is euro? What side of the road do I drive on? How will I pass a driving test? Do they have a Target?" The list goes on and on, but that is honestly the order of what I thought was important.
I braced myself to tell the kids. This was going to be big. They were loving their life in Cali and I knew the distance would blow purple smoke out of their tiny heads. I won't go into much detail, because to be honest it was kind of anti-climatic. Sure, there was excitement and questions but they mostly responded with a "now what" kind of attitude. On the drive home I remembered... this is just life for them. They except what is coming their way. While I had a crying fit and a notepad full of pressing questions I couldn't wait to google, they took it one small bite a time. Over the next few days they would ask questions like, "Can our dog come too?" or "Do they have ice cream in London." (All valid concerns) but overall, they had a resolve that made me both proud and concerned for my own mental fortitude.
Enter this blog thing. I love writing. When there was a Book Fair at school I was the kid that always bought a journal and filled it will poems and sketches and heart felt love letters to some kid in a starter jacket. Writing is truly therapeutic for me. My sister, who is an English teacher, is currently rocking in some corner over my grammatical stylings, but the intent is to share our experiences with all the people we love and have to leave behind for a time. My husband and I are hometown at heart and this move is going to be more of a stretch for us than our "too cool" kids.
My goal is to embrace this move the way kids naturally embrace the unknown. Because the world hasn't clouded their vision of what is truly important, they treat each little obstacle as an exciting new experience. Right now as we prepare to leave, it is easy as adults to get overwhelmed with the paperwork, logistics and endless hoops we have to jump through to move out of the country. But I am going to choose to take a deep breath, and let all of those things go. I can learn a lot from my kids I think...
Stay tuned. More posts as we prepare to fly in one week!