Trail of tears

The past five years have been interesting ones, though if I had my choice, I probably would have gone a different direction in keeping it fresh. We spent the last two to three years in Sacramento really going through a grief cycle as we watched the place of life and deep friendships struggle and slowly sink to a place where paying us for full time work no longer made sense. We experienced anger, grief, denial and hopes that things would get better and eventually realized the cold, hard truth that while we had envisioned retiring in Sacramento, we needed to leave our dream home, friendships and once ideal life behind. The bad news? A terrible economy meant short selling our beloved home (it felt like paying someone to take our memories and a place that had felt like a true home for eight years). It meant leaving family behind. It meant leaving friends and history....people who really knew us...behind. The good news? We were able to short sell our house. We received 10 job offers at a time when churches were letting people go left and right and jobs simply weren't available. The place we agreed to pastor had enough money sitting in the bank that they self-financed a home for us, so we could still own our home. Ironically, while it's not our "dream home" and certainly not new, this home has more space than we've ever had and fits our stage of life with the boys much better than the old one did. The church is growing, we're more than doubling the size of our facilities and the boys are thriving in school here. Both boys have several friends and many musical opportunities we didn't have the resources to make happen in Sacramento. I'm glad there's good news, because a move like that makes you feel like someone ripped your heart out...