The Dog Ate My Blog Post

Okay, so we don't have a dog, but since this whole post will be one big excuse for why I haven't written, I thought I'd call me out on my lame-ness before you do.

Here's what's really been going on: I keep sitting down to write and before I get even a sentence, I'm distracted by a single thought.

We have to move.

We have to move.

We have to move.

It's a never-ending refrain that's been running through my head for the past three weeks since we got the news.

People move all the time, I know. We've done it many times. In fact, in the nearly 13 years Ren and I have been married, we have moved 7 times. Three of those times were international moves. And before that, I moved 5 times post college (including two other international moves. PSA: international moves are ridiculously expensive and should be avoided whenever possible). So, yeah, we know how to move. We know what all it entails, and we are actually pretty good at it. We're the only people I know who can have the entire house unpacked and pictures on the wall within 5 days. Five days! Of course, this probably has a lot to do with our OCD tendencies, but whatever.

Here's the thing, though, since we made our last major move to this city four years ago, our family has experienced several significant changes. Sky got diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, we discovered Pink P's serious allergies and asthma, Stow was born, showed delays, started Early Intervention, and introduced us to the world of kidney and colon issues (overachiever!), and (and this is the kicker) Ren's back went way, way, way south.

Suddenly moving is not just about finding a house and a decent transport company, redirecting our mail, and packing our things. Now it's about finding a doctor who can help me connect the dots between all of the strange things that go on with my kids and offer alternative approaches that have been shown to help kids with similar sets of issues. It's about figuring out when and how and with whom to do OT and speech for Stow and Sky. It's about figuring out which of the schools in a totally unfamiliar environment will handle Sky's challenges best. It's about establishing new networks of support (our last major move brought us closer to our family and old friends, but this next one will take us further away). And, it's about doing all of this while starting a new job and making sure my spouse doesn't re-injure his already very sh**ty back. Oh, and we'll have to get new cable and internet set up which we all know is like a full-time job--curse you Comcast!

The good news is that this will most likely be our last move in a long while, and for the first time in our marriage, and especially since I set out to get a PhD almost 10 years ago, we will truly be able to call a place home. So while peace and stability seem like totally foreign (and slightly panic-inducing) concepts to us, I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. I just have to figure out how to get there from here.

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