Our Departure

It was inevitable.  Something so big was bound to be filled with some stress and sadness, no matter how excited we were to get this trip underway.  Add to it that we had several hours of Departure Day committed to a farewell brunch with family, our oldest’s children’s theater performance, and bookended with a planned first big interview, and it will rank up there in the Hall of Fame of Chaotic Days.

Not how I wanted to begin, but it was as close as it gets to moving, and everyone knows that mix of emotion and exhaustion.

After pulling out of the driveway two whole hours late, we had to concede the interview just wasn’t happening.  Fortunately, they were very understanding and our first overnight stop was only 90 minutes away at my brother and sister-in-law’s house.  They welcomed us after dark with so much love and hospitality, even inviting the kids to spend the first night of the trip in the house with their cousins.  That worked out for the best because a battery alarm went off in the middle of the night (my in-house handyman figured it out), and then my early morning alarm.  Plus, their aunt had cinnamon rolls inside.

I caught myself thinking several times on Day 0 that “I hope this isn’t foreshadowing of how this trip’s going to go.”  But that’s part of it.  A departure from our normal surroundings, routines, comforts, AND thoughts.  A fresh way of looking at everything.  A choice to deal with it all in a different, more fruitful way…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

There was a quiet moment during the rush, a few hours before we left, when Ryan and I wondered out loud if we were doing the right thing, leaving a life and a place we love, for this unknown.

There’s only one way to find out.