The Great Transition

I will try to QUICKLY outline how we went from Caelynn's birth in Hawaii to moving to Colorado in 5 weeks time. You heard me right - 5 weeks time.

The day after I had Caelynn, Rich received a phone call while we were still at the hospital about a job offer in Colorado. Out of all the skills Rich had, the biggest plus was his Top Secret Security Clearance he had received through the military. This is a very marketable thing, since the testing to receive such a clearance is usually priced at about $50,000. So, the jobs he was looking for all required a TSSC. We went home with Caelynn on July 16th, and Rich had to return to night shift duty (he worked for a security company that was contracted through the Army) on the Army base the following evening. Without having any family there to help, being a new mom, and having my husband gone for 10 -12 hours after that first night, I was so scared. I was recovering from severe edema, stitches, and just overall fatigue. Our first night in the hospital with Caelynn, she screamed and cried over and over until around 1 a.m. when the nurses told me they'd just take her to the nursery for a few hours. Turns out, she was famished. Most newborns aren't that hungry but Cae was over a week overdue - I wasn't producing enough for her. Thus we started on THAT rocky road but that is a story for another time. Rich's job interview in Colorado was set for about a week after Caelynn's birth. So, we all headed to the airport and dropped off Daddy, and Cae and I spent our first few "girls only" weekend together. Rich flew back from Colorado about 4 days later, feeling the interview went well but wasn't sure if they were going to offer him the job. Time was running out. My yearly salary would end August 15th and at that point, we could no longer afford to pay our rent and our other bills on just Rich's paycheck alone. We were praying fervently for the Lord to show us what to do. We had a free military move due us which would get us out of Hawaii and to wherever we were relocating - but we needed that relocation address before we could schedule the move. 

Rich applied at a few more places - one very serious offer in Washington D.C., which is my 2nd favorite city in the U.S. because I'm a history nut and I love that city! It would have also put us about a 4 hour drive from my family in PA. You know which direction I was praying. :-) A few weeks later, in the beginning of August, I believe, Rich got the call from Colorado that they had chosen him and would like him to come work there, effective the day after Labor Day. Time to SCRAMBLE! He set up the military move, we rapidly began packing and sorting, gathering, donating, discarding, and tying up loose ends. During this time I got VERY VERY sick - with what I later found out was mastitis. I could hardly move. It was awful but God healed me before we left! We said our goodbyes, one of the hardest things to do for me since I had lived there for 5 years and made some incredible friends and "second family". The movers came, and about 3 hours later, every single thing we owned was gone. Our car was dropped off at the docks to be shipped to L.A. via huge cargo carrier and we were "homeless". We spent the night at a hotel in Waikiki and took some pics of Caelynn at the places Rich and I had frequented during our dating time and marriage B.C. (before children). It was so bittersweet. The next day, we were killing time driving around until we would need to go to the airport, drop off the rental car, and fly to L.A. That afternoon, as we were sitting at a beach park,  Rich got the call from Washington, D.C. They wanted him too. My heart sunk - just a few weeks too late that phone call came! But does God know all things? Yes. Do I believe His plan for our family was Colorado? Yes. His way is perfect.

The night before we flew out - on our balcony in our hotel in Waikiki, overlooking the ocean!

Caelynn's feet in the sands of Waikiki! We did this in Cali, too, and then when Cae was one, I went home to PA and we went to the Jersey shore - so she has been in the Pacific and Atlantic coast line and waters! ;-)

That night, at just 5 weeks old, Caelynn, Daddy, and Mommy left the Hawaiian islands and flew through the night to L.A. I sobbed as the plane took off, banked left, and the entire Waikiki/Honolulu side of the island filled the window as we flew away. A piece of my heart will forever be there. 

We landed in L.A. (Cae slept almost the whole time!) around 5 a.m., completely exhausted. We got a rental car, packed our suitcases and Cae's pack-n-play in the trunk, and drove to a hotel. We had to wait almost a week for our car to come off the ship (it docked like the day after we arrived in L.A. but it took THAT LONG to get it unloaded from the massive ship and moved to the lot!) so we toured around L.A. and had a little "vacation" of sorts. We got our car FINALLY, drove to Colorado, and arrived on the last day of the Democratic National Convention, where Barrack Obama was so popular that we got one of the last hotel rooms in the entire city. We personally aren't fans of Obama and that didn't help. We first drove up and down the roads, found out where Rich's work would be, and then started apartment hunting. That's right - we arrived in town with only the clothes on our back, Cae's pack-n-play, 4 suitcases, and a stroller. We didn't know where we'd live and our belongings wouldn't be arriving for another 2 months or so. We quickly found an apartment, signed the lease, got the keys...but had to wait until the following morning for our credit to be approved. We then went to our hotel to spend our LAST NIGHT in a hotel for a while. 

Long story short...we moved in, went out and bought some furniture (we actually didn't own any b/c in Hawaii we had always stayed in furnished apartments so we only owned a futon Rich had bought before he even joined the military), settled in, and tried to adjust to the dry temps, high altitude, and SNOW! Rich had grown up in Colorado so this was like, "coming home". I struggled GREATLY that first year or two with homesickness for Hawaii, homesickness for family, and just adjusting to motherhood after being a full time teacher/career woman for so long. God taught us so much through it all and blessed us with an amazing little girl that was able to brighten the most bummed out days. :-) 6 months after we moved to Colorado, we bought a house, started fixing it up, moved there 2 months after we bought it, and...that leads me to introducing Matthew, which will have to wait until tomorrow. :-)

Good night, dear friends!