Nine Weeks.

In less than nine weeks, we will look like this: 

We will leave here: 

and go here:

And my heart is heavy. This move will be bittersweet to say the least. The great state of Alaska has been good to Tyler and me. We have strengthened our marriage, made many new friends, fallen in love with a community-driven church, welcomed our first child into the world, experienced Army life, experienced temperatures we never dreamed we would, shoveled snow on a regular basis, and SO. MUCH. MORE. 

Don't get me wrong, I have looked forward to the day we would be closer to North Carolina, the day we would move to a place with a warm Spring and a HOT summer; the day we would drive out of Alaska on our next great adventure. Yet, somehow in the excitement of it all, I failed to think of the people who we will say "good-bye" to. People who have, in many ways, become our family over the last three years. I have learned to rely on friends in ways I never have before. For help, comfort, holiday get-togethers, birthday celebrations, homecomings, and deployments just to name a few.

I am beginning to get organized and make plans for our move. We are beginning to check things off our list, PURGE our closets and mentally stack things into "going with us" or "the movers with take" piles. But although my brain is getting ready, my heart is being slow to follow. In some ways I wish we could say good-bye and leave tomorrow, in others I wish we could stay forever. 

Bear with me as I struggle through this move ... the excitement, the sadness, the details, the organizations, the good and the bad. This is the first time we'll leave a duty-station, and no one tells you how upsetting it can be.

We are fortunate that some of our friends will come with us and some of the friends we were in Missouri with last time will come back, too. This is a blessing that every military family tells you about over and over. For this reason -- the hope of seeing old friends and making new friends again -- the move is exciting and the good-byes aren't as sad.  

Alaska, we're sad to leave, but Missouri we're excited to see you soon!!