We made it to school! About seven months ago. Once plans kicked into gear preparing us for our move, I let my shiny new blog fall to the back of priorities. The very back. Then, after we were all settled into our new home, a routine started. One that obviously and unfortunately did not include the new blog.
But here I am, re-prioritizing. My inspiration? My oldest sister. If I had to write a paper entitled, "My Hero," I'd write about her. 'Cause seriously. Anybody who knew her and her story would be inspired (more on that later).
If we're being honest, moving here was not easy for me. I take that back. The move was cake. Living here has not been easy for me. In the five years Bryan and I have known each other (is that all?), we have, for the most part, always been together. As in, physically next to each other. Since moving here, though, I only see him probably a grand total of one hour a day. And that's on a good day. The rest of his time is taken up by classes, lab, and studying; leaving me feeling like a single parent. Which we knew was coming! None of that was a surprise. The surprise is, how difficult it is to live in the moment sometimes. Preparing for something and experiencing something, are two very different things. Living somewhere far away from any family or friends of any sort, with two very young children, and no husband except at dinner time and during the night while I'm asleep, has really sort of beaten me down. Without going into details, this, very likely, has been the hardest part of my life. But I'm getting better at it. And things keep moving forward.
I called my sister today to wish her a happy birthday, and once again, was blown away by how incredible of a person she is. She busily mothers her seven children, and all that that entails (multiple schools, music lessons, soccer, swim lessons, play dates, chess tournaments, cooking, driving, etc.), her husband is a bishop (this and a full time job probably keep him away longer than Bryan), she is a doula - an aid/coach/support to woman in labor, she keeps a clean house, fulfills her church callings, maintains her friendships, so many other things I'm forgetting, and to top it all off . . . she has leukemia.
Now. Not to discredit my hardships and stress - because they are very real, and really quite hard sometimes - my sister is the kind of person you look at and think, "if she can do it, I certainly can." So as I stood there tonight washing another mountain of dishes by hand (because we have no dishwasher - *whine*), with a stupid sore throat and a cold, after a long tiring day of whining, loud, and ever energetic children, I thought to myself, "I can do it. Things are not as hard as they could be. I sure love my sister."
So here we are. Moving forward.
