Big, Big Changes

Oh, dear reader. I don't even know where to begin! Remember when I talked about change recently? So much has changed and so much has happened during these last few weeks (besides all the travel, death, school, sickness, flooding) that I find myself at a loss for words.

I guess the best way to begin is to just get it out and tell you the most important part.

We are moving. 

Yes, we are moving. We are selling our house and we are moving to Pennsylvania.

No, you didn't misread that --we are moving to Pennsylvania! Brandon has accepted a fantastic new job and starts in a just a few weeks. If we can find a place to rent and can sell our home quickly, we hope to have our family moved out there by mid-October. In a month! Holy cow! (We've done it before. Twice.)

We'll be moving not too far west of Philadelphia. And we are REALLY excited! Scared, nervous, a bit stressed, but really excited. We have felt guided, Brandon and I, in this venture. We have felt peace throughout the entire process as we have prayed and visited the Temple, and we'll continue to rely on Heavenly Father as we move forward and take our brood across the country.

You know, dear reader, this last weekend there was a major storm in our area. In fact, it was so major that it caused crazy damage. The rain came down, unrelenting, and it caused floods everywhere in the valley. Many homes in our ward had flooded basements (unheard of around here --we live on a hill!), a falling branch broke one of our windows, and roads on the edges of our hill were washed away. This video shows the road washing away at the end of our street (we live about 1/2 block north from here).




I thought about how sometimes, floods happen in our lives, and we experience massive amounts of change in a short amount of time. "When it rains, it pours" (or, as my friend says, "when it rains, in monsoons!"). I feel like I'm living in that flood right now. I'm facing the reality that death is taking people I love most (my Grandma, remembering Jared), we'll be leaving family and friends to a new place that is just too far for regular visits, all the work that goes into moving a large family (selling the house, finding movers, finding a place to rent, finding good schools and safe neighborhoods, etc.), and the unknown: what comes next? Will we survive in our new area? Will it work out the way we envision?

It is raining here, flooding a little, but I find myself embracing the rain. Rain brings change, yes, and sometimes it hurts. When the water is carving out a new path or identity, it hurts a lot. But rain also brings life. It brings growth, renewal, cleansing, a chance to start anew...

So, flood or not, here we go.

Let's do this!!