Packing up

It's officially less than a week until we move to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where I'll spend the next 4+ months catching babies and Matt and Eden will spend long, outdoorsy days getting to know our new home. We're hoping that I'll be done by Christmas, but we've learned not to count on hard and fast plans, since ours have changed so many times--yet somehow always turned out better than we'd expected.

Life is about like this right now, but sub in clinicals, working, babysitting, preparing most of our belongings to go into storage for several months, trying to figure out what to pack to live in a 2-room cabin, and taking care of an insanely active 1-year-old.

It's sad to be leaving Reston and northern Virginia, where we went from a couple to a family and shared so many unforgettable moments. Not only have we walked circles around the trails of Reston with Eden in a sling or a backpack, but she now trots along them herself--obviously a big milestone. She's a native Virginian, and it's the only home she's ever known.

We also made our first "parent friends" here--people who'd only known us as a couple and who came to see us as Eden's mom and dad. They shared the pregnancy, admired our baby, and watched her play with their own babies. Corbin, Poet, Lyon, Max, Grace, Camryn, Asher, Camden and others have been Eden's first buddies too.

It will be especially hard for me to leave my nurse friends at the hospital--but then, it always is. What was supposed to be a temporary job while I figured out what to do next has wound up being a 3-year stint where I've met some exceptionally close friends, including Eden's godmother, who have witnessed my transformation from law school dropout into mother and almost-midwife. They've cheered me on, bared their own souls, and laughed at my filthy jokes. It's been an amazing time.

What's especially hard about moving now is that there's not quite finality to it, since we aren't going from point A to point B (which is Iowa, if I haven't said it out loud yet); we're going to point A-and-a-half first, during which I'll make occasional returns to point A in order to earn a little money, so that I don't really know what will be the last time I see people and so it lacks the epic finality that it did when we pulled down the driveway to leave Iowa the last time. In a way, it's sadder, because we always knew we'd be coming back to Iowa--at least sometimes. Once we leave Virginia, though--probably not.