Changes...

I have started this post so many times in my head, but just have not had the chance to actually sit down & type it. Warning! It's long. You'll probably fall asleep at least twice before just skipping to the last paragraph!

The Bush's are about to go through some major changes. Robbie has accepted (& at this point started) a new job with a company in Birmingham. These changes bring up so many emotions for me.

First & foremost, I am so proud of Robbie. This is something that he wanted and worked hard for. It is a great opportunity for him to take his career to the next level. It is definitely going to be harder & more stressful, but I know he will do a wonderful job. (And he will now have to have a blackberry for work & will see how addicting checking your work emails are, even when you don't want to look at them.)

I am so grateful to our heavenly father. This is something we have been praying about for a long time. Lord knows I'm not the most patient person in the world. But two of my favorite verses are "Be still and know I am God." Psalm 46:10 and "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3. We know that this will not be perfect, because life is not perfect, but we have faith that we are following God's plan for our lives, our family and our walk with him.

I am excited to be moving back to Birmingham. I moved to Birmingham my 2nd year out of college and lived there until Robbie & I got engaged. Birmingham will always be very special to me. I got my first real job there, my first real promotion, bought my first car, bought my own house & sold my own house. I have very wonderful friends that live there and I'm so excited to get to reconnect with all of them. It will definitely be different though. When I lived in Birmingham before, I got to live very selfishly. I worked at a cool job, would meet up with friends after work, lived off of a few hours of sleep (well, I still do that one, but it is much tougher!). It is going to be much different moving back there with a husband and child. But I'm very excited about it!

I'm nervous about the changes with my job. I've had a love hate relationship with my job. But lately things have been very good. It is stressful, demanding & lots of pressure, but I love those things. It is adrenaline for me. But with those things comes long hours. It is extremely hard trying to balance those things with also trying to be a good mom. I feel like if I pay more attention to one, then the other one suffers. It's a very though feeling and one that I struggle with daily. I feel like I'm trying to do so many different things, but I'm not doing any of them well enough. When I talked to my company about our move, they were very supportive. I have decided to go to part time and work remote from Birmingham. I could have stayed on full time & just worked remote, but it would be extremely hard for me to do all my job duties not in our corporate office. Plus, I wanted to take this opportunity to spend more time with Jake. Due to unexpected circumstances with my boss resigning a few days after I had Jake, I went back to work from home when he was 2 weeks old. I went back into the office when he was 6 weeks, and I've worked 10 hour days since. I feel like I owe it to Jake and I owe it to Robbie. I'm excited about working part time, but also nervous. What if Jake would rather be in school full time? He is learning so much right now and loves his teachers & classmates. What if he doesn't learn as much at home with me? Our plan is to enroll him in a mom's day out program. (Which I'm sure will be just a breeze to find one mid-year.) The rest of the time that I'll be working, we hope to find someone to stay with him a few hours at the house. We'll see. In my head, it is all a perfect plan. But I also know that evidently God usually thinks my plans are hilarious & changes them. So we will see.

I'm sad to leave our friends here in Chattanooga. Robbie & I always knew that Chattanooga would not be our final stop. But I never would have thought that we would have met the wonderful friends that we have and that we would all be so close. When I first moved to Chattanooga, Robbie introduced me to his 2 closest friends that were girls, Lara & Alli. They welcomed me instantly and were so sweet. Lara & I lived together downtown the year that Robbie & I were engaged. We had so much fun. Lara is one of the most generous and thoughtful people that I know. She has been an amazing friend to both Robbie & I. Once Robbie & I got married, I moved into his house out in the suburbs (if you call it that in Chattanooga!). Somehow, I am extremely lucky that my husband's friends all married awesome girls. Befriending your husband's friends wives is always a gamble. You just don't know what you will get. I couldn't have picked more perfect friends if I had picked them out myself. Kimberly, Margaret & I have gotten to be so close over the last 3 years. We were all pregnant at the same time, we hang out together, our kids play together. We just always have a great time. And we've been there for each other. None of the 3 of us are from Chattanooga and our families all live out of town/state. So we've become each other temporary family. We've been though hospital scares, sickness, funny moments, worried moments, you name it, one of us has probably experienced it. We've experienced the highs & lows of motherhood so far, and I don't know what I would have done without them. And we have so many extended friends that are so dear and special to us. When I moved to Chattanooga, I was so worried about feeling alone leaving my family and friends. While I have missed them greatly, I can truly say that because of our wonderful friends up here, I've never felt alone. I never would have imagined that I would meet the type of people that I met and develop the deep friendship bonds that I have. Our friends are our family here and we love them as that. Now we just have to convince everyone to move to Birmingham!

I'll be sure to keep the blog updated as we go through this transition period, and if you know of anyone wanting to buy a house in Chattanooga, we've got great Christmas present for them! (The best time to put your house on the market is the week before Christmas, right?)