Last Post

Darlings,

There IS a reason that we have not posted for, um, EVER, because the days have flown by while we wrestled with some major life changing incidents, which lead us to the decision that we will be moving back to Illinois. The only readers that I know we have, you darlings, are probably fully aware of this. If there are any of you that I don't know about, you, darlings, are hearing this for the first time.

Early spring is always a difficult time of year for me. There is something about the year cycle in my mind, mood, and memories that causes me to struggle deeply in the March-June stretch. I've always been fairly candid on this blog about my physical and mental struggles, but during this time I have not been able to write. As these things affect every aspect of my life and our marriage, Dan and I did some tough thinking about our situation in Oregon. This last severe phase of my depression revealed that in the case of emergency, both of us do not want to be handling it isolated here in Oregon. I don't mean to sound morbid (if that does sound morbid) but it is our reality. So, in April we made the decision that we would move to be closer to our families and friends, specifically my hometown, Washington, because we need a greater support network. My family and friends in Washington and Chicago were there with me before when I had been admitted to the hospital and they have a depth of knowledge and intuition about my depression that both Dan and I need to have close to us.

After we decided, we waited a long time to tell everyone. We had friends and coworkers to consider and the timing was very specific. Now that everyone knows, I decided to finally post. Ironically, we also accepted an offer on our condo today and will be closing at the end of July. Ahead of us? Packing, moving to a temporary apartment, saving money, and then moving to Illinois in December with our rowdy children in tow; Hobbes detests car rides, Rocco barks out the window the whole time, and Blake has never seen the outside world from a baggy before.

Because there has been so much to write about but we have not been able to write about it, this blog seemed to be buried in a moratorium. Now we have decided to "end" it. The nice thing about this blog is that it has been like a diary of our lives for the past 2 years and we will print the entire thing out, converting it back to paper to add to our chest of all of those emails we wrote when we dated and the myriad cards, notes, and letters we've given each other over the past 6 years.

I feel ready for this...If I kept the blog going, I wouldn't be able to post for another year; there will be so much going on until then!

So this is goodbye. For now. We will absolutely resume an internet presence once we are settled in Washington and ready to broadcast our lives to everyone here, there, and elsewhere.

Until then, you can talk to us on Facebook and still see photos on Flickr.

I hope the greatest thing that came across in this blog was how much Dan and I love each other and love our life together.

And that love is what guides our greatest decisions.

xoxo,
dan + leah