It's over a year later, and still I'm not sure how to write this post. I didn't want to move to Wisconsin when Ryan graduated. I wanted to hate it, I wanted to throw a fit and make my husband move us closer to family, even though we didn't have a job there. I wanted so bad to live near our families. So bad. But the moment I saw Lancaster, I knew. I knew it was home and where we were supposed to go. When the 5 years came up and we started looking and looking, hoping to come home we prayed about it and felt we were to fall in love with Lancaster again. So I did. I truly love Lancaster. Truly. I love the people, I love the small town, I love the beauty, the 4 seasons, fall, my house, my neighbors, my friends. Everything. When the possibility came up to move home, it was almost more than I could handle. And then it became a reality. We were actually going to move home! We would be by our families. I could actually help out with the struggles some of them were going through. I knew it'd be hard to leave my Wisconsin family, but I wasn't prepared to have it truly break my heart. Lancaster is my home away from home. The people there are my family. Oh, it was soo hard. It was time for us to leave, but it was not easy. I don't think I could have left for anywhere other than Texas.
The last couple of weeks were full of goodbyes. I suck at goodbyes. I hate them. Mostly I pretend that it's not even happening. Like no one is leaving. But I couldn't this time. And there were so many people and so much I wanted to thank everyone for. I have a few pictures that were taken durring this time, but not many. I wish I would have taken more.
GNO- Girls Night Out
My friends, my family. These girls. I'll love them forever.
Middle row: Tiffany, Ella, Me, Katie, Jenny
Sitting: Coreina, Shelly, Amanda, and Laura
They surprised me with having Coreina (who'd moved away) and Brianna drive down from Minnesota to see me. What a huge surprise! So fun.
Library time
I LOVE the Lancater library. I miss my librarians and the story times there. When we first moved here we would go to the library like 3 times a week. Just the two girls and I. We didn't know a soul and had no friends. My kids grew up in that library. Every Wednesday was story time with Mrs. Karen. I made so many friends there and the kids learned to love books and learning there. Here's some pictures I stole from Katie of the last story time.
Playgroup:
Playgroup was what kept me sane. That's where I met most of my friends and where my kids grew up. EVERY Tuesday unless someone was puking, we were there. Even when I was in labor (I think it was with Evan) we didn't miss playgroup. How I miss those Tuesday playgroups! They made me a photo book and surprised me with it at the last playgroup. I'm not sure how I didn't bawl the whole time! LOVE these women! Some pictures from Katie.
And the last set of pictures I have are from when Katie and Amanda stopped by one last time to say good bye.
There's so much that happened. So many friends that went out of their way to help us get ready, so many that were there for us even though we were leaving. So many I miss and love. I don't have ANY pictures of all my church family. They were also amazing and I miss them too.
When we got to Texas I was a little depressed. My poor husband. He was so confused, I thought this is what you wanted. Yes, yes it is. Yes I'm so happy to be by family again. I just had no idea how much of my heart I would leave behind. Still over a year later, thinking about it and writing about it makes me cry. I will be forever great-full to my Father in Heaven for not listening to me. I begged and pleaded and even tried to compromise. Please don't make me move even further from my family. But he knew. He knew how much I needed Lancaster. I grew as a person, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend. I made friendships and had experiences I will treasure for always. I love Lancaster and am so thankful for the time that I had there. For the friends that I made. For the way our little family grew together.
