Bloom Where (trans)Planted

Happy May!!  I love when new months also fall on a Monday. It’s a little bit silly but something feels extra exciting about the freshness of it. Last Friday I also started a new year of life. Last year was a good one and this one is going to be even better. We have lots of things coming up this year and there is plenty of adventure in our coming year on a variety of fronts.

One of the things I’m really looking forward to do is settling more into our new home of Pennsylvania. Our move to Pennsylvania was one that came as a bit of surprise to us when we got the news at the end of last year. Pennsylvania was never a state that even crossed our mind when it came to relocating. When Ryan gave me the news it was something I embraced and told him taking on the adventure would be no problem. We came to visit and I liked the feel of the state. I could feel the history it had as we drove through our new areas. 

Then we got here, moved and settled. Our core family all together was the only important real thing and that was something I held onto without any issues but change is hard. It was all about having no idea where we really were, learning a completely new place – new roads, new directions, new laws. The sun didn’t shine as much either which was something quite different from Colorado. 

When I moved from Kansas to Colorado over ten years ago, there was never an overwhelming “I miss Kansas!” feeling. I was happy to be in Colorado, somewhere I had wanted to be for a very long time and that I was starting a life with Ryan. There were people I missed in Kansas but that was about it. It was where my life started but I didn’t have a problem not really looking back. I enjoy visiting there though. There is a home-like feel there but never a yearning to go back. 

After starting our life in Colorado together, there were a lot of heavy ties for us. It’s where our life together really blossomed, it’s where we got engaged and married, it’s where many adventures happened and where we had our first two babies. We always knew where we were going and a new adventure in the mountains was never far. We got together with family frequently. It was our home. It was where we laid really deep roots. Going back to Colorado after the loss of my grandma was bittersweet. It was like going home again. We never had to use our GPS to find where we were going, we just knew. The mountains were in the background and the sun always shined and the weather was the kind that you could leave your windows open all day. We said many times that it was making us want to do whatever we could to get back to Colorado. Home. 

Our ten days in Colorado came to an end, we hopped on our plane back home to Pennsylvania, and headed home. Yet, as we drove up the highway lined with green trees there was a newness of home. We weren’t driving into a strange place anymore, it was familiar. There was an odd sense of peace and a freeing sense that we were in our own space again. We chatted about how in some ways we really did miss Colorado and the trip made that more prominent but in other ways, it left us content in living here. Pennsylvania is our home right now and it could be for a long time. It’s all new to us here but there are a lot of nice things about it Pennsylvania too. 

It can be easy to let changed pull us back and hinder us. Sometimes though, in that change, there was things that we are freed from too. Newness is good and we can thrive within it if we want to.  The choice is ultimately in our own hands, how we decide to write the tone of our story. We get to decide if we embrace where we are right here and now or swim against the current.

This east coast state is our home now.   This sweet little family of mine and I are going to make one heck of a home out of it too. We’re going to ride this wave a change and embrace what comes with it.  Colorado was comfortable but it had it’s flaws too. There were things that we didn’t love about making it a home but that was part of the package. Here we had a lot of great things just the same and I can’t wait to bring those to light and take advantage of them. 

Just like the flowers we just planted on Earth Day and Arbor Day, we’re going to bloom where we’ve been (trans)planted.