Virginia

Late last week we watched our moving truck drive away, and then loaded the remainder of our things into our two cars – Andy into his Audi, and me into the same Corolla that I packed up 4.5 years ago when I was driving off to start a new life and adventure in Virginia. I remember always wanting to live there. To me it was a magical place with its amazing untamed forests and rolling green pasture lands. I had fallen in love with it the first time I visited, and later dreamed of launching an impressive career as an editor in D.C. Now as I drove away from Virginia for the last time, it was very emotional for me. I thought back to the reasons I had come and the reasons I was leaving. There is nothing I would change about the decisions I have made, but there are so many things that I will miss.

I will miss the scenery. I will miss all of the great restaurants. I will miss being so close to so much history and so many things to visit and see. I will miss the friends I’ve made and the home we built.

I will miss Andy’s family being so close. Calvin adores his grandparents in a way that breaks my heart to take him away. I will miss how willing they always were to drop in and babysit or to have us come for a weekend of fun. I will miss knowing that they were just a car ride away and have done so many things to bless our lives. I will miss seeing Andy’s nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters-in-law as frequently.

I will miss my brother and sister-in-law more than they will ever know. Not just because they are family, but because David’s the one I grew up adoring - getting into trouble, sitting among swarms of bees to get a closer look, or whipping each other’s legs with tree branches to see who lasted longest; and Rebekah because when I met her, I immediately saw a kindred spirit and have considered her a sister and the best kind of friend ever since. They have done so much for me, and have been my only family while living so far from home.

There is nowhere quite like Virginia. Though it sounds cliché, I left part of my heart behind when I left. This is the place I’ve found myself in so many ways. It’s the place where I followed my dreams of graduate school and a wonderful career. It is the place where I fell in love. I came as a wide-eyed girl full of ambition and optimism, and I’m leaving as a wife and mother. I am just as optimistic about the future, but this time around it’s tainted with just a bit of sadness for the chapter I’m closing and the life I’m leaving behind.