As most of you know, our family has lived in West Michigan for the past 6 years. We decided to move here from Coronado, CA to start our life as a civilian family during Sheldon’s final deployment. West Michigan is an amazing place to raise your family. There are great schools and safe neighborhoods all around as well as a great job market. Summer and Fall in Michigan are top notch but Winter almost eliminates Spring and gives you 6 months of cold, gray weather. If you can handle that, this is a great place to live. For me, it was too much time stuck inside to handle. Sheldon and I had talked about moving somewhere coastal and warmer for years. We finally got the push we needed when we found out I was pregnant with our 4th child at the end of 2019. Talk about a surprise! After processing the fact that our family would be growing by one more, we started talking about the steps we had to take to prepare. We needed a bigger house, we needed to figure out how additional cost for daycare would fit in our budget, we needed to figure out if our next step was buying in West Michigan or taking a chance on something new.
In early 2020, Sheldon was offered a position in Savannah, GA and once again, we had major decisions to make. With family and friends in Michigan, did we want to leave that behind? I worked for a major retailer in the area at offices 5 minutes from my kids school with great benefits and great opportunities ahead of me. Did I want to give that up with nothing else lined up? Our kids had friends. Not just school friends – friends that we’ve grown to love as a family that are in precious memories from the past 6 years. This was probably the most difficult decision I’ve had to make since becoming a mother. I moved a ton as a kid and knew how hard it was to make new friends in new neighborhoods. I also know it made my confidence and social skills evolve in ways that still help me as an adult. On top of all of these big decisions and major conversations we were having, COVID 19 added an extra layer of stress. We were now stuck at home away from everyone not knowing what the coming months would bring.
After countless talks and hours spent on budgeting, house hunting, school reviewing, COVID planning and tears (from me, the pregnant one) we decided to take the chance and move our family south. Once the decision was made, I knew there was no turning back. I had so many moments when I would get scared of so much change and try to think of a way to make us stay put but I always knew deep down, this was the best decision for our family. I gave birth in Michigan to the most precious baby girl our family never knew we needed and weeks later, we headed to Bluffton, SC to start our new life. We are already looking forward to all the new experiences that are only a drive away!
melissalynnking 