moving a family: part 1

Ella's first photograph in our house in Ann Arbor (2011)

For all of those friends who do not yet know, our family will be moving to Cleveland this summer.  My husband will have graduated from school and will be starting a new job there, and that is something to celebrate.  But the idea of moving and the actual logistics of moving . . . these are some totally overwhelming things, that have rendered me full of apprehension, a little dread, sadness, and fear.

And just to get myself more worked up about it all, I made the mistake of typing this exact phrase - moving a family - into Google last week and among a long list of things, these are some of the articles I found:

this New York Times article about moving . . .

and this, from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology.

Both incredibly scary and totally unhelpful.

Though life continues on for us here, in much the same way it always has, the talk of moving to a new home and city comes up more often than it used to.  I bring it up to my husband to remind us both how quickly this move will be here, and I bring it up to Ella so that we can begin to prepare her to leave the only home and school she's known (yep, here come the tears).

Though we aren't the first family to ever move, and this won't be our first move as a family, this will be a unique experience for us.  It will be the first time we move with a child who is old enough to know that something is changing, and in a big way.  It will be the first time that we hire movers (thank God).  It will be the first time that we have to remove Ella from a school she looks forward to attending each week, and friends she's met.  And it will be the first time we leave this city of Ann Arbor, a city we've grown so fond of,  and all of the friends and neighbors we've met here.  And that is going to be incredibly sad.

Though I am still trying to find the excitement in this moving experience, I am excited to share this process with all of you.  I'll continue writing about our moving journey here, every few weeks, and I hope you'll share your experiences with us too!