I’ll Be Home for Christmas

I know it’s cliche, but guys, Christmas just does that to me. Plus, it’s wildly appropriate. 

In a crazy turn of events, we have moved from Illinois back to our home state of Oklahoma.

I mean, if I’m being honest, the turn of events wasn’t really the crazy part. The move here has been covered in prayer, time, thoughts, worries, excitement, possibilities, you-name-it, for a long time. But getting here . . . whew. It’s been crazy.

We sold our little house in one day. ONE. DAY. And while it was an absolute answer to prayer that we were able to sell so quickly, I have to admit that I’m still missing that house. Not only did it have a brand new kitchen (that’s a whole post in itself), but it was our first home together. It was the first house we bought, the first house we tore to pieces, the house we brought our first kiddo home to, all the things that make a structure somehow have emotional attachment. 

Then there’s the place. Quincy will forever have a special place in my heart. It’s the first place we’ve lived away from our hometown, and it was the best thing we could’ve done as a young couple. Even though we grew up in Oklahoma, we grew up in Illinois, but most of all it was a lesson in listening to God. We have had incredible jobs, opportunities, and challenges over the last 6 years, and there’s no question we wouldn’t be who we are today if we hadn’t followed God’s call to Quincy.

But even more than the things and places and opportunities, are the people. There are no words for the relationships we made there. We left so many friends, I couldn’t even process it all. I’m still not sure I’ve actually processed it. This process has been so strange – it’s felt a bit more like an extended trip than actually moving away. Quincy friends, we love you, and miss you tons. And now we have a guest room, so come down and see us!

Okay, speaking of guest rooms (also I need to stop talking about sappy things or this is going to turn into a different kind of post) – let’s talk about what’s new!

We now live back where the buffalo roam and the skies are not cloudy all day!

I actually wasn’t sure if we’d ever be back in Oklahoma. We both have a desire to see and experience more places, so I’d wondered if our next move would take us somewhere new. Alas, we have a two-year-old and two sets of grandparents who live in Oklahoma, so every opportunity to travel was spent heading to visit relatives. We really felt like it was best for our family to move a bit closer. Plus it would give us the opportunity to experience more traveling than just the 7 hour drive back and forth to Illinois.

So, we sold our house in September, and we moved in to our new house two weeks ago.

For those of you who are maybe confused about when this post was written, or who just don’t want to do math, that means we were living like homeless, mooching nomads for about 10 weeks. 

It. Was. Exhausting.

Don’t get me wrong, it really couldn’t have gone better. We moved here to be closer to family, right? So we’ve had a lot of help (including free room and board) so I literally cannot complain. We are so thankful to both of our parents for everything they’ve provided for us over the last 10 weeks – and it’s been a lot. I cannot imagine how rough this transition could have been. I’ll just say this: moving back into our parents’ homes, as adults, with a toddler, and a work-from-home job, cannot be a permanent situation. I’m pretty sure all parties will agree that when we finally got to load into this place, everyone had a little, exhausted party in their mind. Because let’s be real – no one had the energy to throw an actual party.

So here we are! I’m sitting in my new living room, with a myriad of remaining boxes hiding around our house like poorly-wrapped Christmas presents. But the Christmas tree is up, the lights are on the house, and just try to stop me from making this house smell like Christmas.

You can’t do it. 

I’m still working from home, and I still have a two-year-old, so I still may be hit and miss on the blog. But things have finally calmed a bit, so I’m excited to get going again. Plus, we have a brand new house to renovate, so the projects are about to begin!

New adventures await – we’re excited to see what’s to come!