Are we really doing this???
View from the cruise ship on our honeymoon in St Maarten
Robert and I came back from our honeymoon, a cruise in the Caribbean, and he could not stop talking about how great it would be to have weather like that year-round. We had talked about moving in the past and I always told him that I couldn’t be without mountains. There’s something about forests and mountains that bring me peace. When he brought up Hawaii, I honestly thought he was joking (it did start as just a playful idea).
But Hawaii does have warm weather, a beach for him, and mountains for me, so, I told him if he wanted to move then he needed to research it. Let me tell you, when he puts his mind to something it is ALL he thinks of. He lived and breathed (and probably slept) Hawaii facts, cost of living, neighborhoods, and culture. He even scoured Google Maps Street View to get used to the roads and towns.
Barely a week after he started researching not one, but TWO jobs opened up with his company, which is very rare for the Honolulu area. He applied, what could ithurt right? We knew he still he had to interview and there was no guarantee etc. etc. But still, this is suddenly much less of a joke and much more of a“holy crap…... are we actually going to do this….?” moment.
He kept researching while my happy newly married nesting self was busy Kon-Mari-ing our house (is this a verb now? Because it should be). I wanted to start in the midst of wedding planning but figured that destroying my home in an attempt to clean it out while trying not to become a bridezilla was probably not the best idea. But, it’s a good thing I started as soon as we got back from the honeymoon.
Robert had three interviews within the span of a single week and— after hours of discussion, a huge list of pros and cons, in depth budgeting and researching all of the angles that we possibly could without really having any idea what we were getting into— accepted a job offer in Honolulu. Uhhhh…. WHAT?!? Me. Little Miss “has only lived within an hour of her childhood home for the entire 30 years of her life” is moving. And not just moving, but moving halfway across the world away from everything, and everyone she knows? Umm… what did I get myself into???
I love to plan things, I love lists. To cross something off of a physical To Do list gives me so much joy. Yes, it’s silly, and yes, I will add things to a list that weren’t on my list if I completed them just for the satisfaction of striking a line through it. (That’s a nugget for my family, reference to the John Wayne movie The Quiet Man) I am unapologetically that logistical, list-crossing person. It’s both a blessing and a curse and it is 100% who I am. Thank goodness for that. Fun research time was over. At this point my logistical, needs to be in control brain took over.
Only the first load of donations
From the time he accepted the job, to when we actually left the state, we had less than one month. We had to sell our home in NC, a car, most of our worldly possessions, and plan a cross country road trip with our little diva Luna Freyja (our lion-head bunny). I cannot even begin to tell you how things worked out for us. Yes, I had my lists and plans and research done but this was a million percent a God/Universe thing that we were supposed to go on this adventure. Every. Single. Thing. Worked out right when, and exactly how, we needed it to (even if we didn’t know it at the time).
Have I had multiple emotional breakdowns and angry over stupid things? Or gotten upset about things that we had no way of controlling? Of course, I did. More than anyone will probably ever know. I completely threw myself into the unknown with this decision and it terrified me. To be honest, it still does. But every single day I am reassured of my comfort in God and the Universe making a plan for us because we started this incredible venture not knowing where we would end up, but an answer and solution has always been provided.
I appreciate your support and am so thankful to have you here!
Don't forget to keep an eye on my Etsy shop and Socials for updates and new products!