To Move, or Not to Move?

I have lived in Louisiana for all of my life. I have never even lived outside of the Acadiana area. Now that many of our friends and family members are moving away, we’re starting to feel the itch to move. Yesterday, my husband said “Let’s move to South Carolina.” It was very random. Then I started to think about it more. Close to a coast (cleaner than the Gulf of Mexico), one state away from Florida (where his parents now live), still southern-ish, oh, and let me mention the beach one more time.

I actually have a twitter-friend who lives in South Carolina. I started messaging her early this morning to find out more about where she lives. After a few quick google searches, I was glued to real estate websites for the area. There were so many great houses in our price range… MINUTES FROM THE BEACH. In my mind, I had already moved into some of the houses. All we would have to do is hurry and sell our house, my husband’s company could transfer him to South Carolina, I could hurry and work on my swim suit body, and…….

Wait a minute. What about all of the things I love about Louisiana? What about Mardi Gras? I can guarantee that in South Carolina you won’t see costumed, grown men chasing chickens & swinging them around in the air by the neck while parading down the streets drunkenly. What about the food? From what I understand, many of the ingredients that are common down here aren’t available in other places. What about my cousins and aunts and uncles? I will miss them, as well as the feasts that they prepare for every holiday. What about Festival International? What about drive thru daiquiri shops (I just recently learned that other states don’t have these)? What about to-go booze cups? What about having Zoey grow up in the Cajun environment that I grew up in?

Crap. I’m already homesick.

Thinking further, I would want to go back to work so that we could save up more money in order to put down an even larger down payment on a house. Also, so that we could have money to visit South Carolina and look at houses in person. Problem? I don’t think that I can leave Zoey with a day care or babysitter juuuust quite yet. Even if I would, getting a part-time job probably wouldn’t provide us with very much extra money after paying for child care. There wouldn’t be much money left over to put aside.

Ahhhhhhhhhh! The stress! Remember the days when we didn’t have to make any grown up decisions? Those days were so much easier. Another thing that I remember about those days is how I used to wish I could fast forward to the grown up days of decision-making. Maybe one day we can all learn to be content with where we are in life, and appreciate the fact that any moment could be the best moment of our lives. Even the one we are in now. Even if it doesn’t seem like it could be.

I constantly find myself saying things like “I can’t wait until Zoey can sit on her own.” Or “I can’t wait until Zoey can talk.” “I can’t wait until Zoey can walk.” I think now, I am just going to enjoy every second that I can with her now. She won’t need me to hold her forever. There will be a time when she won’t fall asleep in my arms. There will even be a time when she will be embarrassed by me. Great, now I’m tearing up. I’m not sure how I will be able to handle that time in our lives. I guess I’ll take it one day at a time.

Whoa. This post got much deeper than I intended for it to. I actually started realizing things while writing them down. I have just learned a lot in the last few minutes that it took me to type this. Everyone, love where you are.