A few thoughts on moving around the world

People have been asking me how I'm feeling about our big upcoming move, what I'm thinking about it all, etc. Since there are bound to be folks out there whom I won't see in person to be able to answer this question face to face, it seemed fitting to write a blog post about it.

For the most part, it just seems kind of strange to even think about. When I think about moving, most of my thoughts right now are on the first few stages of our process - selling our stuff and getting packed, the long trip across the world, our time in the Northwest, and our long trip across the States. It's like I can only hold that much in my mind and haven't moved much past "and then we finally arrive at our home in Indiana, Pennsylvania" (which is about an hour's drive NE of Pittsburgh, FYI).

I spent a full year trying to decide where to go to college. Well, really, I started looking seriously at colleges when Alyssa started the process, so it was more like a four-year process. I visited schools, I talked to swim coaches, I read about the towns they were in - I wanted to make sure I was moving to where I really wanted to live. My choices were fewer for grad schools (meaning, there were only two options), but I still visited and talked to a lot of people about them. When it came to deciding where in the world to serve with Wycliffe, well, don't even get me started on what I did to figure that one out! Trust me when I say I put a lot of effort into that decision.

But for this move, it really came down to that we'd move wherever Andrew got a job. Sure, we made sure that it seemed like a decent location first, but that's about it. Andrew is much more "up" on things there, having spent quite a bit of time since then looking into things. For me, I've been so busy that I haven't had much time to explore it online (slow internet doesn't help matters, either). I like what I've seen, but it's been minimal.

So when it comes to thinking about how I feel about moving there, my answer is that I think a lot more about leaving here than moving there, which is a little strange for me, being someone who is a big planner and forward-thinker. This whole thing still feels a little surreal. I think as soon as we leave here, my brain will have enough space to start thinking about going there. In the meantime, I'm happy to focus on leaving well. I want to have good closure on things here, and also make sure there is a system for continuing the translation work from afar. I probably won't see hardly any of my friends here ever again, so before I start focusing on meeting a lot of new ones, I'm just thinking about saying good-bye to my current ones. It's a sad task, but knowing without a doubt that we're called to this new location makes me feel quite at peace about it - both the leaving and the arriving are a lot easier when you know it's the right adventure for you.