My family moved around a lot when I was a child. I've gone through all of the places I remember and counted eight moves before I was 18. Matt and I have continued this trend and have moved 10 times in our nearly 13 years together. Most of these moves were between apartments in our early years of marriage, but three of those moves were after Ainsley was born. Crazy. We were in Austin, TX for the longest amount of time and, because of this, were able to actually establish roots. Friends we will continue to love for all of our lives, a church we loved, areas we loved to hang out in, and local restaurants where we loved to eat.
This last week, I have missed our Austin roots. I miss Tex-Mex. Folks, if you live anywhere but Texas, I highly doubt you have had real, good Tex-Mex. I'd pay a pretty penny for a good bowl of Maudie's or Chuy's queso. I miss our friends and family. Yes, the ones I mentioned in my previous post. But, we are not moving and I honestly do love where we live now. So often, I joke with Matt that it would be heavenly if we could live where we live and all of the people we love from the south would move up here and we could merge our southern friends with our new northwestern friends. In so many ways, our move to the northwest was a blessing. Personally, I needed this move to grow - to change. I believe God has always had his hands in our adventures and this last move was the most obvious blessing of them all.
In Austin, Matt and I found a church and through that church (and our friends in it), we started growing in our faith. We talk about Austin being our springboard to Seattle. In Seattle, we have found the church we believe God wanted us to find at just the right time in our lives. I have learned more about my faith and what I truly believe it means to be a Christian here. It's pretty incredible and I am incredibly thankful. Had we not moved to Seattle, I am not sure we'd be on the journey to adopt. But, here we are. Pretty incredible.
As I was talking to Matt about this recently, and telling him how much I miss this person or that, he reminded me it takes a long time to establish true roots. From a purely analytical standpoint, if you think about a tree growing, it takes that tree years, decades, to truly grow deep in the ground and then tall. We have been in Seattle for a very short amount of time - two and a half years. In this short amount of time, I already feel the underground roots sinking in. Church, home, etc. I believe I will soon see the top of our tree rising more and more and am so thankful for the branches that have already sprung. This is my home. Rainy weather and all! And I am thankful. I am thankful for our church. I am thankful my husband has a job he enjoys. I am thankful our daughter is in an awesome preschool and is making friends. I am thankful for the friends who call me when they know Matt is traveling and that I need a bit of cheering up. I am thankful for the amazing beauty around us. I am thankful for coffee shops on every corner. I am thankful for monthly Bunco. I am thankful for a million parks and green trees. Simply thankful. There is really no other word for it - thankful.
Our tree has been replanted. Our roots are settling in. And this time, unless God has other plans, the roots are staying put. We're going to see how deep they can grow...
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