My husband and I have a big exciting announcement!
We are moving home!!!!
The story of our move starts from the summer that we met, back in 2009. Ross was just about to start law school and would be moving away at the end of the summer that we spent working together at Camp Y-Noah as Summer Day Camp Director and Assistant Director. (That's how we met, in case you didn't already know) ;)
Ross moved to Ada, Ohio to attend Law School at Ohio Northern University. We had a long distance relationship for a year which was extremely difficult after working together at a place where we lived and saw each other and worked closely together everyday! But we made it through! I was going to school at Kent State's Stark Campus and majoring in English. Luckily, there was an Ohio State Lima Branch 15 min away from Ada, Ohio, so I transferred schools to continue working towards my degree out there. And so began my journey of being away from home for the first time.
For someone who switched High Schools during the first half of their Junior year, from a school district I had gone to since kindergarden, I knew how hard these kinds of transitions could be. No matter how hard you try, it's not easy to keep your friendships as close when distance comes in b/w you, because you just don't physically have the time to get together. Luckily technology has made staying connected easier with a simple text, and at the time phone calls. But let's be real, people rarely call each other anymore. I have to take this time to say as a person who isn't able to see family and friends as often as I would like because of distance, texting is not the same as actually being able to see that person and interact with them face to face. I know that for some people, that fulfills their connections, but it's just so...lacking for me.
I would rather sit with a friend or family member, face to face and have a good chat, or do something fun together. But hey, that's just me. But that experience has been a huge dilemma of mine when it comes to the physical distance b/w myself and my close family and friends back home. You would think that fact that living only a couple of hours away wouldn't mean I would hardly get to see my loved ones, but trust me, no one is excited to come out to Ada, Ohio. When I did come home on some weekends, our parents would battle over our time. :* Kisses, we love you. lol But that made it even harder to ever make time for our friends.
When we lived in Ada, I told Ross that this just wouldn't work if I couldn't have a cat. He was allergic, so we did some research and found that some allergy sufferers can live with Siberian cats who have a low amount of the hormone in cat's saliva that causes allergy sufferers to reach to cats. She is like our child. We spoil her rotten and love her to pieces!
But things happened along the way, that made us realize their were bigger challenges that came with living even just a couple of hours away from home. On Mother's Day three years ago now, my brother was involved in a fatal car crash that killed the driver of the other vehicle who was at fault, and a friend in the vehicle in the car which he was also a passenger. He and the others survived, but it was a long road to recovery both physically and mentally for our entire family. I can't tell you the emotional downside to feeling so far away and not being able to get home quickly. That makes a two hour drive feel very long.
It was then that Ross and I always had an end goal of someday moving home in mind.
During one summer break we moved to Beckley, Wv so Ross could work in Summersville for a summer internship. I took summer classes to work towards my degree. We rented out the basement of a house that had been turned into an apartment. However, the basement didn't have air conditioningand it had what every basement has, finished or not, spiders! I swore we would never again live in West Virginia! Joke's on me! ;)
We lived in Ada, Ohio for two years while we both finished school.
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| Ross graduated Law School. |
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| We got engaged! |
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| I graduated from The Ohio State University of which I am so proud! |
Then we moved in with some very dear friends for the summer while Ross took on his first big job as an attorney working for Bob Cupp while he ran for his re-election.
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| They let us move in despite the fact that we are Browns fans. ;) |
During that time, I did what I knew best and worked as a pre-school teacher at a local church. When the election was over, after long hard hours where our hearts and minds were put through the ringer for this election, our party suffered a defeat, and we had to move on again.
This time, we went home for the summer and stayed with my mom while we contemplated our next move. I almost forgot the dreaded bar exam, that was a full time job for Ross to study for. He passed on his first attempt!
Then Ross got his first job out of Law School working as a Disability Attorney in Parkersburg, Wv. So we moved to Belpre, Oh, right on the river.
We got married on October 5, 2013. Planning away away from home is a huge pain in the ....
We have lived in Belpre for a year and a half now. We have made many friends along the way, and had amazing opportunities. But moving home has as always been an end goal and has always been in the back of our minds.
We have both lost a grandparent this year, and have had to make multiple trips over the past couple of years for weddings, showers and all kinds of special events. There have been many times when we had to miss events because it becomes too difficult to come home on a regular basis. First of all it's expensive to drive home often and second of all, we have work to keep up with here at home. My grandma has been ill, and I haven't been able to come home to visit her as much as I would like. We have ultimately been reminded of how important it is for us to be back with family.
We have missed seeing our family and friends and are completely overjoyed that we are now going to be moving back home! We are currently house hunting but are not in a rush and want to take our time to really look. We will be moving home Memorial Day weekend! We will finally have more time to visit with family and friends, and I honestly can't wait to be back home with a support system! We will certainly miss the connections we have made here but will be sure to come back and visit the special friends! :)
I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!
