Cross-country move

[Mrs_Z]

Has anyone here ever moved far away from all of your family? Hubby and I are considering moving from the Pacific Northwest to maybe Atlanta or Dallas. We are considering those places because they would be good for hubby’s job with social security and the housing prices are such that I could continue to stay home. We don’t want to move to a small town closer to home, because though it would be closer to family, we do not want to live in a place or put our children in schools where there is a severe lack of diversity and there would be less job opportunities for my husband. If we move to either of those places, my sister would join us after she finished grad school so we would have one other family member. Also, hubby’s parents are planning to retire overseas in a few years so they will be gone anyway.

For those of you who have gone through something similar, what was the hardest part of the move? How did you stay connected to your family and find your place in your new community?

 

[lotusblossom]

If you’re close with your family, it’s not easy at all. My parents moved us about five times in my lifetime and it’s never been that easy, but we’ve never been too close to either sides of the family. My mom was close to her siblings when I was really small, but that was at least 15 years ago and is no longer due to their changing lifestyles and morals and shunning my mom for keeping her Catholic upbringing.

Anyway, as long as you have your immediate family, it’s tough, but possible and in the end can make you stronger as a family. We would visit my grandparents and other relatives about once a year (they lived in FL, we lived in WI or TN at the time). But constant communication is a must! My mom talks to her parents and to some of her siblings on a regular basis (ie. once or twice a week) and we always send cards and gifts for holidays and such. It’s not the same, and honestly, I love my grandparents, but anything else besides one uncle who I see because he lives near my in-laws, I really have no bond with any other relatives. But that’s something I’ve never really had except maybe when I was 3 years old. I know it’s possible and that it wasn’t so much the distance that has made us this way, but more so the attitudes of family members.

If this is what you and your husband really want, it will work out . Pray, pray, pray! Moving is never easy, but it’s not life-threatening either! I’ve done it what seems like a million times and DH and I are moving two states away this summer, so I know the meaning of moving. God bless!

 

[puzzleannie]

have made big moves several times, would not even consider it without an overriding reason–great assured job opportunity etc., and I would do all the research I could on the new location. For instance, “dallas” covers a lot of territory, suburbs, outlying areas, there is the “macro” location and the “micro” location, as any realtor can attest, to consider.