“I wish we weren’t gone so much lately.” That thought crossed my mind the other day and then I was reminded why we have been gone so much lately, which brings me to this post. Remember a few posts back (well actually a lot of posts back) where I defined family and was reminded about how much family meant to us? Well it means enough to us that we are picking up our belongings and what we have called our residence the last 5-ish years and moving back “home.” Well not exactly where we last called home, but back to be with our family. All of our family.  To eliminate all the need for speculation– we are moving to Mauston, Wisconsin. Now, before you think we have lost our minds, read on.

This decision has come after several, and I mean several conversations, prayers and considerations were made. Now, if it were up to me, I would probably stay here (or truthfully- move to Madison- I love and miss Madison). But the fact of the matter is we are now making decisions based on what is best for Jackson and we truly feel it is best for Jackson to be raised by our families (not raised by them, we will do the raising, but living near them!).  He is in his element on Papa and JoJo’s little farm helping feed and water the cows. He loves going in Grandma and Grandpa’s shed to get a closer look at the goat and feed him bread. He loves picking up chickens at Mike and Myriah’s. Playing tackle with the kids. Chasing his cousins. It is where he is meant to be. It is where we are meant to be. He is not made to be a city boy.

I was recently listening to a podcast (something I just started to do several months ago and I highly recommend them!) and she was saying you should at least move away from “home” once in your life to allow yourself to grow and be the best version of you. We didn’t do that the way most people do, because most people move away from home to go to college. We didn’t. We didn’t move away from “home” until we were in our late 20’s. But when we did, we moved down here on complete faith that this is where God wanted us to be at that time in our life. We needed it. We needed to find ourselves without the constant support of our family. And we did just that. We grew together. We grew independently. We grew with Jackson! We met and developed a strong connection to our friends here.  But now we need to grow again in a different way. We need to grow back to our roots. We need to have Jackson grow up surrounded by his family. We need our family time back! We need to move out of the comforts that we have made in this affluent community and move to where our hearts and resources will help the least of these.

I remember one of the things I was looking forward to the most about moving down here was that no one would know me. I could walk around Wal-Mart and not have to dash into a different aisle just to avoid talking to someone I knew!  Yes, I will admit I have done that a time or two in my life. But after five years of it, I realized that I actually miss the “small town” feeling and knowing your neighbors and having constant contact with your closest family and friends. I want to know that if something were to happen to me or JJ that we have a community of people who will be there to help us.

Most of you would also probably assume, that we are moving because of my husband’s job. Well, actually, he doesn’t have a job as of the writing of this post.  I will continue to work for the attorney I work for but remotely 4 days a week, and will travel to Brookfield one day a week until we get all the kinks worked out. But we are not moving for a career advancement. In fact, we both will be giving up a lot for this move in regards to our careers. We aren’t doing it for our careers. We aren’t doing it for the money. We aren’t doing it for the fame! We are doing it because it is what we feel is best for Jackson.

So as I look back on these last 5-ish years I marvel at the life God has given us and look forward to what God has in place for us in the years to come. I also wish I could express to you how much this move fills up my love cup. For those of you who don’t know, we will be living close (I mean like, miles close) to our most dearest and closest friends. We recently spent a few hours with them and my heart was so full, I couldn’t stop smiling for the entire next day. Oh, Lord, thank you for putting this in our plans.