Talking about moving

Before I started this blog, our lives took us from Kentucky to Minnesota, where JB attended Medical School. In 2007 we said good bye to four years of medical school and moved from Minnesota to the Panhandle. In 2010 we moved from Eglin to Turkey. And now, 2012. The time has come again. Last week JB got our tickets assigned. Our flights to the Azores. Early June. We leave in early June.

This will be the seventh time we have moved in fourteen years of marriage. I really don't get tired of moving. To be honest, it is invigorating, as a woman who loves organization, to clean out things we don't want; purge; start again.

But leaving people. That is something I will never get used to.

So here is an actual conversation on my bed. Me and my boys. We were snuggling. Reading. But my voice is shot and I ended up not being a very good reader. So we started talking instead. Kids ask questions I'd never think of. They are aware of so much and yet so little all rolled up into a huggable package. Watching my boys navigate this move is quite hard for me. It's so different than the last time. They don't remember last time. They'll remember this time.

Isaac: "Mommy, when are we going to go to the Azores?"

Wendi: "When Elijah's Flintstone vitamins are all gone, it will be time to go."

Isaac: "Are Patty and Mr. 'Meal' (Yamil) gonna go to the Azores with us?"

Wendi: "No, they have to stay here. But Mr. Shane and Dr. Linda are going to come visit us."

Isaac: "But Veronica and Joni are going to come to visit too, right Mommy?"

Wendi: "I hope so."

Isaac: "Roy and Joni?"

Wendi: "I hope so."

Isaac: "Are we going to take all our stuff?"

Wendi: "Yep. Everything in our house."

Isaac: "The electricity switches?"

Wendi: "Um, no. Not those."

Isaac: "What about the bathtubs?"

Wendi: "No, not those either."

Elijah: "But all our shirts?"

Wendi: "Yes."

Elijah: "And our toys?"

Wendi: "Yes."

Elijah: "And we are going on a plane?"

Isaac: "And will Mr. Shane and Dr. Linda watch Scrubby until we get back?"

Wendi: "No, honey, we aren't going to come back. We have to leave this house forever. A new family will move in to this house. We are going to get a new house in the Azores."

Elijah: "Is Daddy going with us?"

Wendi: "Yes. You tell me. Who is going with us?"

Elijah: "Daddy and Mommy and E-yi-yah (Elijah) and Isaac and baby Abigail and Scrubsy."

Wendi: "That's right."

Isaac: "Scrubby is going to fly in his cage under the plane."

Elijah: "But what about William? Is he going to move too?"

Wendi: "Yes, but not to the Azores. They are going to America. And Noah and Rowan are going to Japan."

Isaac: "And a big truck is going to come get our stuff?"

Wendi: "Yep."

Isaac: "And it's going to go on a big boat?"

Wendi: "Yes."

Isaac: "A cargo ship."

Wendi: "Yes, a cargo ship."

Elijah: "But not our bathtub."

Wendi: "No, not the bathtub."