Exodus

Ohmygoodness.

We have moved out! It has happened! We have left our beautiful home in the city by the sea and spent three long (LONG) weeks wandering around, waiting for the possession date at our new place in the co-housing community. 

I won't lie. This has been no easy task. Even with all the pre-purging we did, there was still a bunch of stuff to give away or throw out. For instance, our lawn mower. I mean, if we aren't going to have a grassy lawn, then why would we need one? We are certainly not interested in just keeping things around "just because". And so we sorted, and worked through the horridly full garage (9 boxes of girls' clothes I gave to the thrift store!!!), and packed and packed and packed. It was gratifying to experience packing up a house that had been well purged. We really didn't have LOADS of stuff, and hardly anything that wasn't used regularly or often. Woo hoo! Satisfying!

The girls went through many emotions. It has been a tricky thing to walk them through all this change, but all in all, they have really taken to it well. They are pretty happy kids and I feel like they trust that we have all our best interests at heart, not just ours as adults. They seem to feel safe even in the midst of the change, but that doesn't eliminate the occurrence of moody days, or fighting more, or regression in the potty training, depending on which girl we're talking about. These changes aren't always easy.

So after a little road trip, a week of RVing, and a handful of days at the inlaws' house between each of our temporary abodes, we are now lying in bed, nearly ready to turn out the lights and go to sleep, to wake in the morning and MOVE IN to our new, somewhat unusual, definitely exciting home! We are so ready, filled with nervousness and eagerness, which take turns churning our stomachs and never seem to quite leave us alone. 

What will it be like? We don't know yet! All our guesses are really just theory! 

Our challenge over the next few months will be learning how to really live out our values intentionally, however we see fit. The family time, the community building, the simple living, the living within our understanding of God's presence, the intentionality, they all need to continue to grow in us. It would be so easy to simply forget it all and embrace this move as just one more big change that will distract us from our antsy-panties, but we cannot. In a lot of ways it's a new beginning. 

And so, tomorrow it all starts, and continues. There are new beginnings every day. This is one, and we embrace it!