"So you're moving?"

A few months ago I posted on Facebook that we are officially moving to Washington. The timeline, however, is to be determined. Since then it has come up frequently as a topic of conversation both in our home and with friends. I feel very ambivalent about moving, there is so much that I love about living in Oakland. We have a church that is truly a community, Anellah's preschool teacher and staff are a God-send, I have a job that is perfect for our current needs, Anellah is well established with her medical providers, it's sunny almost every day, we have very close friends, we can grow plenty in our garden, our home is beautiful, our neighbors rock, the list goes on...

Painting with Friends yesterday

BUT there is a BIG thing missing, we don't have family here. I guess I never really understood the family connection until I moved away and started a family of my own. But now that I have, I see that I connect with relatives (whether related by blood, adoption, or marriage) in a way that I can't connect with friends.

Playing with Cousin Sophie on our trip to Washington last month

Ice Cream with Cousin Eloise

Daniel and I often talk about moving and ask ourselves, "How are we going to make this move work? How are we going to pry ourselves away from this fantastic place while our kids are still young enough to need the free babysitting that grandparents offer?" We've come to the conclusion that there are three steps. Here is our specific plan, I am sure you will find it enlightening:

Step number one- a job for Daniel in Washington. Well I can't even say that is "pending" but we're working on it.

Capper "working" in our back yard

Step number two- find a place to live. This one IS pending, we have some property and we are working on permitting to build our future home.

It doesn't look like much yet, but this is our future home!

Step number three- move.

So there's your update on our future plans, as you can see they are set securely in mud.