You read that right

We finally told our growth group, couples group and closer friends about our intent to move and so more or less, the cat's out of the bag.

For those who don't know, Tom and I are seriously considering moving back to the East Coast. For those who have known us for a long time, you may have the same reaction as my old roommate Cecelia: "Yeah, RIGHT!" We've talked and toyed with the idea for a long time. So long that when we bought our house 3 years ago, some friends were like, "But weren't you thinking about moving to the East Coast?"

I'd say now we're more serious and we have a time/deadline: kids.

The major motivation to move is to be closer to family. Tom's brother (who he is very close to) is in New Hampshire and my parents are still in Maryland. Those are our primary targets: Boston and the DC area. Although Tom's parents remain in Pittsburgh, we didn't really consider relocating to Pittsburgh because the job opportunities for Tom are slim.

So we say we have a deadline of the kids because the kids are growing up so fast. If we don't move now, I feel like we're going to miss an opportunity to really grow up with family nearby. Our ideal timing is before Tobey starts kindergarten, which would be next summer (2008).

Our decision to move is difficult to say the least. It is bittersweet because while there's an excitement to starting somewhere new and meeting up with family, there's a great unknown of leaving our many friends here and wondering whether we'll find anyone to be able to replace some of our most cherished friends here.

We also decided to move several months ago, starting to seriously think about it after our visit to DC/Maryland last New Year's. It has been weird to plan on moving in our minds and yet not really talk about it with friends until we were more sure of our decision. At some point I felt like we were holding things back from some of our closer friends, plus wanting to ask friends for prayer during this transition. So with our Boston reconnaissance trip coming up, it seemed almost past due that we told our friends our plans so that they could hold us up in prayer.

It has also been weird to make plans for this school year, wanting to establish community especially at school and yet also realize that we might not be here past this school year. It was a weird trade off of stepping down from organizing hospitality at Mom's Time Out out of fear of not being "present" enough to effectively lead during this year of preparing to leave, but then volunteering to be a room parent at Tobey's school so that he has a sense of community and social activity during this school year. Being here and yet not being here is a really weird middle ground to be. And if our plans get delayed a year, I would seriously consider paying 1 year's private tuition for Tobey to stay at Yew Chung's kindergarten because of the great community. We'll see.

It's a roller coaster of emotions thinking about our kids and this move. We've technically never told Tobey that we're planning on it and yet he's picked it up in conversation. Of course he has no idea of what moving really entails and I just hope that we can be sensitive to his emotions about moving as we sort through ours. It's a little sad for me to think that Eli will probably have no recollection of our current house, just like Tobey has no recollection of our condo. And as I perused some of the real estate online and imagined ourselves in a bigger house, I got emotional just thinking about Tobey and Eli running around a new house, happy as clams in a bigger shell. In reality, they probably don't know the difference between our tiny Bay Area home vs. a nice big colonial on the East Coast. But I get misty just thinking about their carefree innocent days in a bigger house with a real yard.

A friend told me that although she's sad for us to go, she is also excited for us. She has had thoughts of going somewhere new too, but she is already where we are going: in town with all her family. She is "stuck" (for lack of a nicer word) but is excited for this new chapter in our family. I am too, at least that's what I remind myself when I get sad about leaving. Between recon trips, house hunting online and Tom's job search, I hope we will have time to live it up this year. We'd like to hit the Southern CA amusement parks before we leave. Maybe Hawaii for our 10th anniversary while we're still on the West Coast? I imagine it's a little like being told we have one year to live and making the most of it.

And know that whenever you visit Boston or DC, you'll have a friend to stay with!