Photo: Martha G. Brady

It’s early in the morning.  No, not 6 AM.  It’s the kind of early that is more like the end of the day…only after midnight.  As I start this, it is 1:30 AM.  We are trying to finish up our packing so we can load the truck tomorrow morning and move away.

We have lived in this house for most of the past 25 years.  We moved to Texas in January of 1988 from Miami, FL.  It wasn’t a huge change in weather, but the week we moved here it seemed like a massive change!  The day the moving van was unloaded into our home on a hill, a rare snow/ice storm hit Tyler.  There wasn’t a huge amount of snow really, but in a town where there is rarely snow, there are no snow plows.  Those with any sense just hunker down and stay off the roads… the people driving rarely know how to drive in ice/snowy weather!

This is the house our girls finished growing up in. It is full of memories!

At that time, our girls were 10, 14 and 16.  They lived in south FL for most of their childhood as far as they could remember.  There was a lot of sadness with the move to TX.  They loved the school they had attended for years.  It helped a little to have the snow/ice to divert their attention.  As the boxes were emptied, they were able to take them outside and slide down the hill.

During our years here, they graduated from high school, college and some even graduated from grad school.  My husband retired from the church here after 16 years and we moved to Hanna City, IL for a year as an interim pastor.  It turned into four delightful years of working with a church who loved the Lord and knew how to love us too.  I think we returned the favor as well.  But I digress.

Now they are grown, married and have children of their own. We are retired and it is time to move on.

Now the girls are grown, married and have families of their own.  We have seven grandchildren… but have never lived near any of them.  As we thought and prayed about what to do, we came to the decision that Huntsville, AL would be best for us right now.  This was the stateside daughter who had no grandparents nearby for her children.

We have been back in Tyler for 5 years now.  Our experience this go-round has been different…but good.  It has also had its share of pain.

As we move to AL on Thursday, we look forward to more years of taking up the challenge to enjoy our grandchildren, encourage our children, grow in our faith, and worship in a new community of Believers.

As you can tell, I wrote this just before our move…just didn’t get it finished off before posting it.