Preparing for “goodbye”

I hope that this post finds all of you having had a wonderful Christmas! We were busy all weekend and didn’t finish up all of our families Christmas festivities until last night; but we had a blast. Though Little Man’s new talking Buzz Lightyear was a huge success, he seemed more excited about the boatloads of M&M’s (num-n-num’s) that he received. We had a difficult time prying him away from the candy in his stocking to open his actual gifts. We had a great time. The husband did a very good job on the gift-giving this year; spoiling me with a new purse, new perfume, and tons of new (and warm!) clothes. We spent a lot of time with family and I took tons of photos. And although I haven’t had a chance to even touch the Christmas photos yet, here is a little tiny sneak peek of someone else I had the privilege of photographing Christmas Eve:

We spent almost all day yesterday helping my mother-in-law take down the Christmas décor and attempting to pack some of our things up to prepare to take to Florida next week. It is UNREAL how much junk can be accumulated over just a few short months. Hubby brought back so much stuff from California that we have had to leave two full suitcases packed for lack of storage. And although I’ve already cleaned out closets and toys once these past few weeks, another trip to the Goodwill is looming.

Speaking of looming…we leave for Seattle a week from tomorrow. And although I am overjoyed and beyond excited for the next phase of our lives to commence, saying goodbye to all of our families, knowing that there is a very real possibility that we won’t see any of them for maybe four years is a tough pill to swallow. I’ve tried to push the thought out of my head for the past few weeks, but 8 days will pass quickly and then it’s farewell to the state of Alabama and hello unknown.

Again, the adventure, the excitement, the newness of the life that awaits us isn’t making me nervous at all. I’m an adventurous and spontaneous kind of gal anyway. Things like that don’t get me all frazzled and bent out of shape. Someone during the course of time I have managed to develop this mentality where change just intrigues me and excites me. I thrive off of the unknown and generally remain optimistic about such things. For example, the prime excitement I’m working with right now is all of the new photos I’ll get to take driving across country and all of the new writing material I’ll have to share on my blog. 🙂 But, saying goodbye to my family gets me a little bit choked up.

If we’d gone straight from Florida to Alaska with no stopping in between, it probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. Most likely I could have said goodbye and gone on without much hesitation.  Not because I would miss them any less, but because we were already separated. We’d be accustomed to them not being around all of the time. But now I’ve been here 8 months (it’ll be a little over 9 months by the time we leave next week) and I’m used to having everyone here. So is Little Man. He’s used to his grandparents and his aunt and uncle being right here whenever we (okay…he) wanted to go visit. It’s definitely going to be hard on him to not get to go visit as often as we have been. He loves his grandparents and his family. The mom in me worries that we may not have made the best decision where that aspect of things is concerned.

But…I also know that we have made the best decision for our family as a whole-and when I say “our” family, I mean quite literally our family…Hubby, Little Man and me. The benefits heavily outweigh the negatives and I know that if Alaska wasn’t where God wanted us, then we wouldn’t be going. For those who don’t know how procedures go for the military, we don’t just pack up and go to wherever they send us, especially not Alaska (which is considered Outside of the Continental US). There are mountains of paperwork that has to be filled out and screenings that cover every single aspect of your life, from health and wellness to an in-depth analysis of your families finances. It’s not a simple process and there were ample amounts of things that could have gone wrong and not worked out for us. But so far, it all has. And I’m placing my faith in that knowledge that if it weren’t meant to be, it wouldn’t be.

So…for now, I’ll just keep on packing and hope that the coming week drags on as slowly as possible. I’ll take lots of photos and enjoy every last ounce of time we have left with our families. And I’ll continue to trust that there is a bigger plan and purpose and most definitely continue to get excited about the changes and the opportunities that await us in the last frontier.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!