What a Difference a Year Makes

Last year at this time Dave had just returned from a trip to Denver to visit family and I was in a tough place at work and very stressed.  This prompted us to start talking about whether we wanted to raise our hypothetical family in Seattle or if we wanted to move elsewhere.  Seattle is great and we loved it but we were very far away from family there.  Flights to see my family required between 6-9 hours of travelling, flights to see Dave's family 3-6 hours.   IF we were going to move we were moving someplace with family and with a lower cost of living.   We looked at the cities and towns our family lived in and  narrowed the list down to Denver.

Denver gave us a number of benefits

• Family a quick car ride away.
• Travel to see my family dropped to 4-6 hours.
• Travel to see Dave's family dropped to no more than 4 hours with the closet trip being 20 minutes.  
• Lower cost of living.
• Mountains. 
• Red Rocks.
• A great craft beer scene. 
• 300 days of sunshine. 

We knew it wouldn't be easy, but this wasn't the first big move for either of us.   If we were going to move we needed to move first and then start the adoption process.  We figured it would take about a year or so for the move to become a reality.  Imagine our surprise when a few weeks later Dave learned of a job opportunity, it seemed like a sign.   2.5 months after "thinking" about moving to Denver we were packing up our house and saying good bye to Seattle.   

Here we are a year later, getting settled into our new home and approaching the time when we are home study approved.  The move happened much quicker than we anticipated and there have been definite adjustments, but it was definitely the right decision for our family.  I have mostly adjusted to working from home and am in a much better place career wise, we are making friends, we are exploring our new home state and most of all we've enjoyed spending more time with family.