While I was told I had to wait at least six months before trying again for another baby, it was the perfect time to sit down and use that time to reevaluate our home. We were living in our starter home, and while I loved my tiny little home, it was our starter home. The tiny 800 square foot 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom ranch home barely fit the 3 of us. We now had extra time handed to us, and it was hard not to use it to find something a little more family of 4 friendly.
There was one big problem, location. We were already an hour north of my parents, and we knew Ton’s health was declining, but my mama bear heart knew I needed to do what I thought was best for my family and not pick a home based on someone else’s decision location and a potential illness. I never minded driving and knew there would never be too many miles between me being there, Ton.
We started falling in love with a smaller neighborhood even further north. It was hard to start looking away when we saw how much more land and home we could get for our money and still have a good school district (remember, former teacher!) for our children’s education.
If I told you that conversation was easy with Ton, I would feed you a big fat lie. I understand that as a parent, you hope to have your children live close by, but I just felt that the town I grew up in was in my past and was not somewhere I was considering turning into my future. Our starter home was in Bryan’s hometown, and I felt like everything around us had a meaning and a story before me, and I was ready for a town to create our own stories and memories in.
Our house ended up selling in a week, and we were scheduled to close in 30 days, so we went to the wire to find a new house. During a spur-of-a-moment last-minute trip into what I hoped would be our new town, our relator met me to look at a few more houses. We walked into what would be our current house, and I knew instantly this was the house for us! I loved that the main level was nice and open, the perfect layout for a toddler to run around without hidden corners to destroy the house and a beautiful view into an inground pool.
I grew up having a pool and was so excited about the possibility of raising my family in a similar situation. I loved having the house that people wanted to hang out at, the house where family parties never ended, the house where friends turn into family.
Contracts were signed, movers booked, and we were all scheduled to close on both houses on the same day, 30 days later. I sat in my car and put Ton’s address into my GPS, and it popped up, 74 miles away. I would now be 1 hour and 30 minutes away on a good day.
Suddenly, I had a huge knot in my throat. I knew this was the right move for our hopefully growing family, but I also knew that calling my parents and telling them that we would be moving even further away would not be easy. I will spare you the details but let’s say I was right. It was not and has not been easy for my family, knowing we moved further away, but I was also right in knowing this was the best choice for our family.
We already had a vacation scheduled for Indiana Beach two weeks after our move, and seeing that I was already in the doghouse and that Ton’s health was getting worse, there was no way I would cancel this trip. While I might have had bags under my eyes the size of Texas and blood pressure through the roof, I could unpack everything before leaving for the week.
Looking back, was I crazy for going on a vacation two weeks after moving? Would I do it again because it kept me in check and focused? Absolutely.
This trip would be different, though, then all the years before; this trip would include a cane and a wheelchair. This would be the last trip where Ton could walk around the park and enjoy the corndogs and elephant ears; this would be the last trip where things would still feel special.
While this trip had a lot of lasts, it was not the last trip we would go on there.