Jitters

The closing date on our new house is less than a week away now, and my emotions keep going back and forth from excited to nervous, happy to anxious.

I'm excited because this house is amazing. It has everything we need and want. Have I mentioned how bright and sunny it is in there? How beautiful the towering pines are on all sides? How large the bedrooms are? How every room in the house has a HUGE walk-in closet? How functional the kitchen is? That there is a DISHWASHER??!! (Keep in mind, folks, I've been doing dishes by hand for more than a year now.)

I'm nervous because, well, let's face it. It's far. It's 18 miles past Elk River to the Princeton exit, then you drive through the tiny town, past the Pamida (that's right -- there's a Pamida. You know you're in the country when you stop seeing Cub & Rainbow and start seeing Pamida.), past a sorry excuse for a strip mall, and over the Rum River. After that you still have to go another 5 miles down highway 95...past a Christmas Tree Farm, two churches and a bar...until you reach our road. Did I mention the neighbors have seen bears and cougars around there? Suffice to say, we will be far away from the life I know in the cities.

I'm happy because this move will lift such a heavy burden off of our family. Next weekend, once the closing is final, I'll post more about how amazing it is that we are even able to buy a house. But for now, suffice to say that we will be paying one third of what we were paying for our 3-bedroom rambler in Brooklyn Park...for a much bigger, much nicer, much newer, much less needy home on 5 acres of land.

I'm anxious because I have never had to be the new girl before. I went to the same school kindergarten through 12th grade. I went to the same church most of my life. I went to college where I already had a "student group" of friends built in. I've never really had to go out of my way to become a part of a community like I will need to in Princeton. (And I will need to. If I try to remain dependent on my life in the cities, I'll end up feeling isolated.) I will need to make a new life out there, in addition to my life in the city. (I've already located two MOPS groups in the area!)

So each day, I go back and forth between all of these conflicting emotions, knowing full well that God has my times in His hands and He knows what's best for us.

Don't get me wrong, I know I'm not the first person in the world to go through this. My brother moved his whole family to North Carolina. Many of my best friends in the world are scattered all across the nation now, where they've all had to start new lives. My parents moved to Minnesota, away from their families and life in Tennessee, without knowing anybody or anything about the frozen tundra they were entering, based simply on their faith that God was telling them to move here.

I'm only going to be about an hour away.

So I'll stop complaining now. I just wanted to let you know so hopefully you can be praying for us during this transitional time.