Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

So, it's official. We'll be moving home the beginning of December. It all happened so fast!

We moved up here with the intention of staying a minimum of 3 years; that was our contract with my husband's employer. He was to grow the company here and finish a big project and we were perhaps going to relocate permanently.

Then, we heard about his mom's brain tumor. And right away, we knew we had to go home. Except, we'd signed the contract with his boss stating we'd be here 3 years minimum. But even still, Josh felt he had to at least ask. So he sent off an email to his boss, letting him know that we had just found out his mom had a brain tumor. We knew it was asking a lot since we've only been here 6 months, but that we would really like to move back, ASAP. For good.

Right away (aren't Blackberries amazing :-p) his boss replied, saying he was so sorry to hear the news and they would talk next week. Then, ten minutes later, another email from his boss comes through. "After thinking about it for a few minutes, I have some ideas how to make it work." And from that point on, it's been a matter of "how" not "if" we'd be moving back.

God works in mysterious ways, that's for sure. We never expected to move back home so soon, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad. It's much too hard to be away from family when something this big happens. I've missed my cute little house that we'd owned just 7 months when we got transferred. I've missed my family and friends. I've missed our church.

And now, it starts all over again. The packing, the cleaning, the de-cluttering, the bittersweet process of leaving good friends behind and re-joining family. I've enjoyed the time we've had here, I'm thankful for the friendships that have grown. I'm going to miss them. Thankfully, we still have 6 weeks here and I intend to make the most of it.

I will not miss this house. It's been good to us, but it's too big and old. I will miss the fireplace; we've used it consistently. So much, that we're talking about putting some sort of wood-burning/pellet-burning stove in once we move back.

Bittersweet. Torn. I don't know whether to smile or cry. So I do both.

But when I look at these pictures, it's only love and thankfulness I feel.