looking back i have to say i am proud at myself for trying something new and getting way out of my comfort zone. i like to play it safe and i like to be predictable, this went against all that! and the timing was a hard one with a baby on the way. but i knew it was now or never. i hated the way i felt in the place i lived. we lived on a crammed street with way too many houses, we hated our jobs, i spent between 3-4 hours a day commuting, we had to compromise in every way when it came to trying to buy a home and i didn't see any of this changing in the foreseeable future. i spent lots of time day dreaming about a life that i didn't need a vacation from. a life where i could raise my children with lots of space and nature and where we didn't like work was getting the best of us. unfortunately this place didn't exist in california.
we had visited some good friends the year prior in washington state. they rented a beautiful home that was totally affordable, everything was green, they had good jobs and loved where they lived. i envied them! i wanted this! i thought about it for some time, like a long time. i knew i had to keep my thoughts to myself because i wasn't sure how i felt about moving. but i dreamed about change and it overcame me. i knew there was a better lifestyle to be lived somewhere else and i am not getting any younger. i dreaded having this conversation with family and i knew i would have jarad's full support. i didn't know our location would be washington, i just knew i loved the life our friends lived and i needed that. i had to do some research, but what i did like is that it was still on the west coast, mild weather (although rainy), they had lots of jobs for jarad's industry, a lot more bang for your buck when it cam to real estate, lots of outdoor activities and no state income tax!
as you know the ball got rolling and one thing lead to another and here we are! 3 houses later, 1 child, 1 miscarriage, 1 baby on the way and we bought our dream home! and somewhere between all those big life milestones we have created a home here with some awesome friends! i took a chance and for me a BIG one. but i knew if i stayed somewhere when i wasn't happy then i would never know what i was missing out on, and i knew i would never regret making the move and we could always change our mind if we were unhappy. but i never imagined how happy i would be. i literally can say i have all i ever wanted, and things i didn't even i know i wanted! what surprises me the most is how much i craved open space and privacy. jarad always wanted a house outside of a development and on land. i have never lived this way and the idea sort of scared me. well...the country girl in me is loving it! and i tell jarad all the time, when our kids get older (or maybe even sooner, who knows) i want more land and to be even a little more removed from all the new build up of our city. what i didn't expect is that we are not the only ones who love maple valley. in the short time we have been here the city has grown a lot and there is a lot more housing and shopping going in. this makes me sad, i love the "small town" feel of where we live. and i want to preserve that as much as possible. but luckily we chose our location well and we are outside of city limits and unaffected by this change.
the one thing that i miss every single day is my family, and that will never change. everyone thought i was crazy to move so late in my pregnancy, and it was crazy, but it all worked out! the hardest part has been watching bowie grow up and say "goodbye" to her grandparents at the airport. when she was a baby it was hard on me to see them leave, but i never knew it would be ten times harder as bowie gets older to have to see her say "goodbye." it is something i will never get used to. luckily we are good about visiting often and of course lots of video calls, but it's not the same.
so 2 years in the blink of an eye and i realized i still have the ability to surprise myself with my own courage. this was something i never thought i would do, but i know that this move has increased the quality of our lifestyle exponentially. we have so much more exploring to do here and i am happy and proud to call this beautiful place our home.
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