A Great Ride

In May of 2006, we loaded up our little family of 4 (soon to be 5) and all of our earthly belongings in a 24' moving truck. We drove away from everything we had ever known, to the unknown terrain of Salt Lake City, Utah.  The events that had led us to this were strange and special all at once.  We owned a little home, and after 2 years of lovingly fixing it up to make it ours, both Joel and I felt strongly prompted that we should put it up for sale.  We fought it at first, why on earth would we need to leave our home that we had worked so hard on??? Especially after having lived through our carpenter ant debacle. :)  At any rate, the spirit works in mysterious ways, and we knew we should follow the prompting.  We sold our home, and moved into a town house at the edge of town.  We were still reeling a bit at what we had just done, and why on earth we had done it.  The answer came, when Joel was contacted about a month later about a job opportunity in Salt Lake.  If we hadn't sold the house, it wouldn't have been an easy decision.  Joel accepted the job, and we were off.   When we first got down here, we questioned our decision many times.  Especially at the lonely times, the hard times, the exciting times when we wanted to share with our loved ones...yet they were hours away.  But, we moved into a lovely little ward about a year into our Utah adventure, the Riverside 1st Ward, and found home.  We met and mingled with some amazing people who became our surrogate family.  Fast forward 6 1/2 years, we are finally going back home...we're a not so little family of 8 now.  We leave this Friday to be exact.  I sat in sacrament meeting today for the last time here, and made the mistake of looking around at the people I have had the pleasure of interacting with for the last 6 years.  So many of them have helped us in times of need, or have cheered us on as young parents, or supported us through our callings in the ward.  We've shared ER trips, holiday parties, births, deaths, camping trips, service projects, and summer adventures.  I've done crafts, preschool, playdates and even walked picnic tables down the middle of the street for blocks with some of them.  At that moment, I lost it.  I couldn't help it.  I'm going to miss these people terribly.  It's definitely a bittersweet feeling to be leaving.  I love the people here, and will always hold them near and dear to my heart.  But I'm also excited to see what this new chapter in our life holds.  If it's anything like the last one, we're in for a great ride.  :)