Since I prefer gazing longingly upon the donut and not upon the hole, I'll redeem each Low with the opposite High...
LOW: Pulling up to an unfamiliar home in an unfamiliar town and within hours, partying like it's Halloween 2009 within a sea of unfamiliar faces. I can't be sure when I checked out that night; between scrubbing our new, filthy floor or allowing my kids to take candy from complete and total strangers or maybe it was the utter shock of being barely post postpartum and moving my new baby through the Swine-Flu invested country. Whatever the reason, I'm pretty sure I was catatonic.
HIGH: Exactly a year later, looking out into that same sea of faces and feeling so much appreciation for the beautiful people that have become our Jax Family. Interestingly, I had spent the day scrubbing that same floor...only this time, it was OUR mess.
LOW: Winter in Jax was record breakingly cold last year...so cold that it stayed at freezing for weeks. That didn't stop our community from continuing to water the dead, frozen grass which provided us with a frightening skating rink for us to glide through on our way to the bus stop.
HIGH: During one of these death-defying trips, after dropping our older two girls, Lulu, Ruby and I carefully walked home. That day I noticed, for the first time, the truly unique and vastly different plant life of our new home. We walked past the most stunningly beautiful holly bush that had been pruned into a tree. The way the sunlight peered through the lush, green branches and highlighted the deep red of the berries made my heart happy. It may sound silly and trite, but that glorious moment, and the near perfect mental picture that remains was a turning for me. It was the first time I remember feeling a sense of hope that all would be well. We would fall in love with this place and the bleak loneliness would ease. It did.
LOW: Upon arrival to our destination, we discovered He-Man wouldn't be paid his first pay check until right before the new year. Moving across the country on our own dime...surrendering all patients to other doctors...draining our account on living expenses...not being paid for 2 months-right before Christmas...Oih. Those weeks served us a heaping helping of anxiety with a side of nausea.
HIGH: When He-Man filled his position so many things changed. My husband came home at night and stayed home. Once he started getting paid, we began paying off the debts we accrued with our move as well as past business and living expenses. He began coming home happy and stress free. Our family finally has our Daddy back!
LOW: The discovery of noxious and aggressive pests indigenous to the area. He-Man arranged for us to tour one of the Naval ships some of his patients were stationed on. While waiting to board, we stood on the grass taking pictures and watching the ship from the shore. Without warning, I felt dozens of piercing bite-like sensations all over my ankles, feet and up my legs. Apparently, I had unknowingly stepped on a Fire Ant hill. The pain didn't stop that night. For the next 3 weeks, those awful bites would wake me in the middle of the night because they burned so bad.
1 word: cockroaches. Y-U-C-K!
HIGH: The other gritters that make Jax their home are really quite wonderful. Geckos, frogs and dragonflies are all over the place here. One of my favorite things about the past year has been walking outside at night and hearing the frogs croaking near the pond. That is a sound that can soothe me to sleep.
LOW: Probably the lowest part about living in Florida is being so far away from family.
HIGH: Being so far away from some of our other family has meant we've been able to become closer to other family members. Case in point: The Atlanta Incredibles. They know who they are...yet, I'm not sure they know just how utterly and completely fabulous they are.
Atlanta has quickly become our second home and I find myself often giddy at the prospect of going back.
I'm happy to illustrate the highs and lows of the past year. It shows that there are significantly more highs than there are lows...which means blooming where we've been planted will be even easier.
1 comment:
Has it really been a year? Another high, you're all on an adventure of your lives, discovering new things, together as a family. And if it's a big family compared with the rest of the world, well, that's their loss and your gain because you have more people to love and who love you back.
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