We are moving this summer. A bittersweet decision we made early this spring, and have been trying to process the reality as the timeline is moving so quickly! The last three years have felt like a decade it seems. We had decided to move to Nashville prior to the onset of the pandemic, before the world shut down and the housing market soared. We thought this would be the city where we would plant roots. Even though we didn’t expect it to be our long term home, this home has been a safe haven for our family these last 3 years. Within these walls we brought home a new baby, celebrated life, grieved life, adapted, and grew. These years changed us, and altered our perspective on how we wish to shape the upcoming decade of our lives.
This past year as we started to come up on another crossroads of our oldest facing high school, we knew something needed to shift. The city of Nashville has grown rapidly, and our commute time to schools have doubled. We found ourselves feeling stuck in the city life hamster wheel. We have been burning the candle on both ends working hard to keep up with the costs of one of the most expensive cities in the south and the trying to keep up with the busy schedule of a big family. We were spending hours in the car every day for just a few activities! We found ourselves re-visiting the idea of making drastic change to buy back time for the present. We explored so many options. Moving further outside of Nashville would have still been high cost with no one we knew around us.
(The day after we moved in celebrating Rocco’s birthday.)
We both kept circling back to the same place – a small town in OH, where my mom grew up. (Gabe and I actually met in college in OH!) It’s a special town – one where we spent many summers in with endless childhood fun with my cousins. I have many family members who live there, and it’s a town where everyone looks out for each other. Gabe and I actually debated moving there even before Nashville, but were hesitant to make the big change until now. Even though houses for sale are slim to none, we were able to find our next home. (It deserves it’s own post so will share more on that soon.) It is a street over from my grandma and on the same street as my sister, aunts, and uncles. We will be a few blocks from the school, and the kids can bike and walk to the library, park, and ice cream shop. It feels surreal that a place that was a big part of my life growing up will be our permanent home soon.
(The day we brought Augustine home, photo by Joy Prouty)
We didn’t make this decision easily. For the past year, we were asking God for guidance on what felt like an impossible puzzle to solve. There were no perfect scenarios, but we weighed all of the pros and cons for what would ultimately be best for our family. We didn’t want to start over again, but we also didn’t want to settle for a life that felt like a continual uphill race. One of the biggest consolations for us was that when we asked our kids how they would feel about possibly moving to this town, each of them expressed so much excitement. (They know the place well as we have visited several times.) It felt like the push we needed to move forward with this decision.
Of course, there are definitely some difficult aspects of this – moving away from my two sisters here, further away from my family in Atlanta, and having to go back to the long midwest winters. We are going to miss our amazing neighbors and friends we have made here in Nashville, but hope to make frequent visits on our way down to visit my GA family. We know small town living will have it’s own hurdles as well. We are not seeking the perfect solution, but more so the better scenario for our family. We are really looking forward to simplifying our lives (our main new years goal), and being in a community where there is so much family history.
We sold our home before even putting it on the market via word of mouth! A big exhale for us as it saved all of the stress of having to prep it for showings. It is another family in our community who we know will love and appreciate this neighborhood! It is definitely hard to put so much of our time and heart into a home, and so quickly have to pass it on. I am not attached to much on this earth, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not gonna miss that spice drawer! (Jk the whole darn kitchen.) Mainly, leaving the familiarity of these rooms that hold so many special memories for us. It all feels raw and emotional right now, but I know the excitement will come later.
Thank you for the kindness you have shown through many of our family’s milestones. We appreciate you more than words can express.
