Leaving friends and loved ones

My family moved houses every 2nd year (on average) until I left home at 22.  In that, we moved towns 3 times and I lived in America for a year as well.  I'm kinda used to moving I guess.  And the Big Fella's dad was in the Air Force, so they moved a fair bit.  So he's kind of used to moving too.


But the part that's always sucky is leaving friends and loved ones.  It's hard on several fronts:


Firstly it's hard because I'll miss you!  Life here has been good and I've met so many wonderful people.  And I've been near my sister and her expanding family, and my grandparents, which has been awesome.


And it's hard because you'll miss us!  And your pain is very much in my mind as I see you all over the next few weeks.


And it's hard because I'm excited about the upcoming changes but you can't really be.  Sure, you can be excited for me, but it's not the same.  And when I'm excited, sometimes you feel like I can't wait to leave you (which isn't true).  I'm excited to live with my husband again.  I'm excited to live in a new location and all the potential positives that we'll get out of living there.  I think the Little Big Fella will thrive in the smaller community, and the small school in a few years.


And it's really important for me to be excited about the changes.  Moving is one of the top 5 most stressful things you can do in your life.  Without the excitement, it'd just be stressful and sad.


I guess that's the thing about moving towns though.  It's a very torn time - a time of "inbetweenity" (as my lecturer used to say).  Excitement, stress, sadness, nervousness - all at the same time!


Although I'll do this individually with lots of you, I'd like to say THANK YOU!  Thanks for being so lovely and welcoming and looking after me and my family while we've lived here.  Thank you for all the fun times and for helping me through the not-so-fun times.  Thanks for the hugs and the gifts and the words of encouragement and advice.  Thank you for supporting me when I did Tupperware and for keeping an eye out for me when I had my baby.  Without you, living here would not have been so good!

YOU

ARE

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!