Good-Bye Denver

This was our final fare-well to the Ranch. We went to sweet Lila's second birthday party Saturday morning and left straight from there to our one-way flights to Cincinnati. In hind sight, that may not have been the best idea, as we left all our friends at once, already tired and emotional, and we wrecked the end of poor Lila's party. There were lots of tears and sweet good-bye hugs. Thankfully the mood was lightened when we hit the parking lot and saw our rental car. Michele had carefully tied the cans from an entire case of Pepsi to the back of our car. That was her rebellion to Coke for taking us away. The kids thought it was hilarious and they would have loved to drive off with it. But, Tommy took one look at those Pepsi cans and ripped them off in a hurry!

Our trip to the airport was a sad one. I am still not sure my kids really understood that we were leaving forever, but they did know that everyone was crying. Reagan said a few times that she didn't want to move, but that is about all we heard from them. They were fine by the time we got to the airport. However, the remainder of the day was full of very uncharacteristic temper-tantrums and melt-downs, so I am sure that was their emotion coming out.

We fly fairly often with our crew, but each time I forget just how much work it is. We had so much stuff, we could barely make it through the airport with it all. Add to that big girls crying over various different things (everything but being sad, though I am sure that was the underlying cause) and Gracyn being just plain miserable with really high fever, and it was not one of our better trips. Addison and Reagan were fine on the plane. They sat in a row with Tommy and stayed busy with their backpacks full of books, coloring and movies. Gracyn and I sat in front of them, next to another passenger. Thank goodness she had her carseat, where she slept for about an hour. The remaining hour and a half she just cried. Poor girl was miserable and nothing could make her happy.

Thankfully we made it, exhausted and emotional, crammed everything into Tommy's new company car and headed for the hotel.

I can really honestly say that I don't think the full impact of the move has hit me yet. I keep waiting for the realization to hit. I am so busy. Taking care of my crew is a full-time job without adding in unpacking, setting up a house, adjusting to new schools and all the other details that come with a move. I know in a few weeks, as life settles down, I may have some hard moments. For now, I get little hints of sadness at the time of day we are used to playing with friends, when I want to just call someone....but everyone is so far away, when my girls ask why we don't have playdates, things like that. But, having done this moving thing a few times before, I know that, in time, God will provide new relationships and eventually this will be home. We can already see so many small blessings and provisions from him and are blessed that things are going as well as could possible be expected!