Moving

“Mother,” Linnea groaned, looking at me with pleading eyes, “kids are supposed to move away, not mothers!”

I sighed, then pulled her in close for a hug.

It was the end of our last grandma day, and Linnea and I were visiting while the kids played in the backyard with Kami and Krissi.

“It won't be so bad,” I tried to assure Linnea, knowing she wasn't going to believe me. “Now, your kids will have a grandma who lives in the country. You always hear stories about kids spending the summers with grandma and grandpa out on the farm. This will be just like that.”

“No it won't,” Linnea grumbled, looking close to tears.

I was thrilled to be moving up to the mountains, excited about leaving the desert and the big city behind, but I hated leaving my children and grandchildren. I had begun bringing Tais, my oldest granddaughter, over to my house once a week six years ago when she was a baby, and today was probably the last time we would ever have grandma day. This was hard.

“You can come up and visit us whenever you want,” I tried to comfort Linnea. “You go up to Snowflake all the time anyway to visit Jason's folks. Now you can visit us, too.”

“But I can't just pop over whenever I want, mom. It takes three hours to get to Snowflake.”

“Then maybe you guys should think about moving up to live by us,” I suggested with a twinkle in my eye.

“Not in a million years,” Linnea declared. One thing Linnea had always maintained was that she would NEVER live in Snowflake! To her, it was the smallest, most backward, unappealing city in the state. Linnea liked the big city, even Gilbert was too tame for her.

It sure was a shame we had to leave behind so many people we loved. That week our neighbors and friends hosted an open house for us, kind of a going away party. I had already gone to two luncheons with friends and spoke in church, so I didn't expect many people to come to the open house. I was amazed at the wonderful turn out! It was so nice. Everyone was sweet, and they all signed a big poster for us that Kami claimed for her very own.

“I'm putting this up on the wall in my bedroom,” she told us on the way home that night, “and I'm keeping it there forever!”

Moving was hardest on Kami. She was twelve, and just getting used to Junior High. Now she had to go to a new school and meet all new people. I think Krissi was nervous, too, but somehow sixth grade wasn't quite as intimidating. Plus, my sister had already moved her family up to Snowflake, and her daughter was the same age as Krissi.

“One of the best parts of living in Snowflake will be having so much room when we build our house,” I reminded the girls. “There will be lots of room for dogs and cats, and maybe even horses.”

“Can we really get a horse?” Kami perked up.

“We'll sure try,” I assured her, knowing if anything made up for having to leave her home, school, and friends, it would be the thought of having a horse of her own. Kami loved riding, feeding, and caring for our neighbor's horses, and she had learned a lot.

Moving was a lot like life. There were good things about it; wonderful, exciting, fun things like getting to live in the mountains where it actually snowed! But at the same time there were awful, sad parts, like leaving family, friends, and our home. Sometimes the good outweighed the bad, but sometimes it didn't. Just the same, I was excited for our next adventure to begin, and to find out just what lay ahead for us in the future.