Making Like a Tree...

Back in 2012, when we were in the midst of our move nearly halfway around the world, I mistakenly said to Darling, "After all the craziness these past 4 years have held, life is going to seem so boring and uneventful in comparison from here on out." Two and a half years later, and I can honestly say things got more interesting, more eventful, and more memorable than I ever could have imagined. This tiny little southern town and its surrounding areas hold some of the sweetest, dearest, and absolute bestest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Some of them held our sweet Osias, and some of them held me during the difficult moments of his life and afterwards. Some of them welcomed us back to the church family after our too-long absence and encouraged us to grow and rediscover how much God truly loves us. Some of them have become lifelong friends that I will always treasure, and that I truly hope to reunite with again someday.

My last three pregnancies began and ended here. We bought our first house here. Our kids saw a squirrel for the first time here (seriously! Hawaii doesn't have squirrels). Our oldest kids learned how to ride a bike here. This was the place that offered so much sweet tea that my kidneys hurt for the first few weeks we lived here. We saw our first monster truck show here. We laughed here. We cried here. We hurt here. We healed here. We grew here. We loved here.

And now we are leaving here.

Being a military family, that isn't really too surprising, moving and all. It's a known fact we most likely won't ever stay in one place for more than 3 or 4 years, and we had no expectation (or desire, if I'm being completely honest) that here would be any different. Yet somehow when Darling got his orders, I realized just how deep our roots were planted during our time here. This is the only house I've ever dreamed about, besides my childhood home. It's going to hurt to leave this place in a few months. I know I'm going to be leaving a hefty piece of my heart here when we go, even though I hope I gain a new piece of my heart in our new home. And while I now know better than to make any predictions about how eventful or not our next chapter will be, I'm filled with bittersweet excitement to begin it. I want to live out the next few years with more passion and interest than I have in the past, because I know more now than I did when our last chapter began. I carry a powerful reminder of how short life can be, and I know that this moment is the only one we are guaranteed to have.