Transition and Change.
As I sit here in the living room, both babes restfully sleeping in bed the train passing by in the distance and the house is so quiet. I here the quiet snore of Rudy at my feet and the reality of change is more real than it was this morning, or even than it was yesterday preparing for today. For A it probably felt like any other day at home because our routine isn’t changing much here on the home front. We rise each morning and go through our day to day and reality hits us only in the evenings when the garage door doesn’t open just in time for dinner and the excited shriek from A doesn’t sound down the hallway when Ryan walks in the door. Today is day one of this new season and tonight the door didn’t open and there’s going to be a lot more days like that ahead of us.
Today isn’t really the official day for this change of season for our family, that happened a couple weeks ago when the promotion happened. Really, it was even before that when Ryan walked in the door and said “I’ve got good news and bad news. Good news, I’ve being promoted. The bad news is I’ll be traveling next month,” a few weeks ago. Even with the knowing today was coming today was the day it became really real. Today marks the first day of the next long five weeks of Ryan traveling for business. He’s gone this week for 3 days, back for two, gone for two weeks, back for one and a half days, gone for a week and a half, back for 4 days and then gone again for another four. Did that makes your head spin? It does mine. He’s got a few more rotations of traveling that we know are on the radar, too.
There’s a bittersweetness in this new season. It’s sweet in knowing its movement forward in Ryan’s career – something I’ve prayed for, for so long for him. It’s bitter in knowing how much he’ll be gone these next several weeks, how much I’ll miss him and how much the babes (especially A) will miss him.
It’s sweet in knowing that this is temporary and after this stint he’ll be back a while and we’ll get to enjoy him at home before he’s gone again for a couple more strings of time. It’s bitter in knowing that now that this season is come that our time here in Colorado is counting down quickly, and my gut says it’s quicker than we think it will. Yet, I’ll be honest in saying that my heart is stirring with excitement of the adventures and life to come. It feels like a double edge sword.
Yet, in all of this, all of this change and transition accompanied by new routines and “new normals” there is indescribable goodness that comes in seeing my husband grow and thrive in his career with a company that takes good care of him. For so long we waited for this, a real career and not just a job for him. He’s got that career now and he’s moving forward quickly and I’m so incredibly proud of him. I just was telling a client of mine yesterday that I’m not sure how this next year will go, or even the next ten – whether we’ll move 2 times or twelve during this career but that I’ll be following that husband of mine to the ends of the earth and back without thinking twice. There’s just a profound contentment that comes with knowing you are living this life with the person you undoubtably are meant to be sharing it with, with a family you’ve created together and a plan that’s bigger than the two of you.
These next weeks will be different for all of us. He’ll be missing us and we’ll be missing him. He’ll be in a new place, experiencing new places and meeting new faces and we’ll be here living the normal day to day minus the door swinging opening at the end of the day that we all look forward to each day. This week will be the easiest since it’s our shortest time with him being away from us during this stint, but soon we’ll be missing him even more. We’re so grateful for technology though that will allow us to video together so we feel a little less far away from one another. 1750 miles won’t feel quite so far away when we get to have one another in the evenings if only for a little while.
We’ll look back at this blip in time and see that it’s just a small time in the grand scheme of things. Change is a tough pill to swallow for everyone but the goodness that comes just on the other side of this temporary season is filled with more change (like a big move!) but also will be so rich in goodness in so many other ways.
So here’s to a new season of change and transition – the rough, the tough and the great – we’ll be up around the bend soon.
