Such A Time As This: Leaving Earlville

I've been putting off updating the blog because our life has been absolutely crazy lately, but I think I'm ready to recount our latest adventures and process our departure from NY.

Let's back up to April and May. Packing a home while pregnant and caring for a toddler is not for the faint of heart. I'll admit that my heart fell faint a time or two--just ask my husband. It didn't help that I was still in the midst of 1st trimester nausea/fatigue. Truth is, I put off much of the packing until the last few days and somehow pulled it off (not without much help from David).

The final weeks in Earlville were filled with many sad farewells. We were only there for 10 months, but we met so many precious people that we will surely miss. A bit of history: I became a stay-at-home mommy when we moved to NY. Being a SAHM was/is my dream job, but moving to a strange, rural place while sharing a car with David made it very challenging to connect to other mommies. Did I mention that the population of Earlville is a mere 750? The first few months there were extremely hard. I loved having so much time with George at home, but I was really aching for some adult interaction. I also had to learn to live without some modern conveniences such as a dishwasher(!!!), disposal, air conditioner, and hot water in the washing machine! To me, I was really "roughing it" but lots of folks up there don't know anything different. (Needless to say, those items all topped my wishlist of amenities for our new place in Indiana.) I knew I could live anywhere for 10 months, but my attitude was one of "sticking it out". I quickly discovered that I needed people--I couldn't live with George in a vacuum for 10 months. This is where I turned a corner-- God provided the most precious people to befriend us. Since we didn't connect with a church while we were there (we couldn't find one with a nursery for George), I met others through storytime at the libraries in Earlville and Hamilton (town where David worked). Every week we attended storytimes on Tuesdays in Hamilton and Fridays in Earlville. This is where I met mommies and then was invited to playgroups and outings. Before too long, we had a pretty lively social calendar. These friends threw George a surprise 1st birthday party, babysat George countless times (especially while I was packing), helped us move, jumped our car when it wouldn't start, and threw us a sweet going away party, to name a few blessings. We already miss our friends and hope to see them all again someday!

While I never really loved our house (remember the pipes bursting while we were away?), some of my favorite memories happened here such as: George learning to walk, talk, give kisses, hugs, etc. His 1st birthday was celebrated in this house too. David and I loved sitting out on the front porch together after putting George to bed for the night.