Moving On

A few more months ago, I made a difficult decision to take a break from doing what I love and passionately believe in, so I can concentrate on other priorities. On hindsight, the timing turned out to be incredibly perfect, especially considering all the unrelated events that occurred after my decision was made.

To cut a long story short, we sold our home in late April and bought a new place within 36 hours. It was rather surreal.

As much as we loved our home, we were seriously running out of space. But we hesitated selling in the last few years as E and I couldn't reach a compromise - we both care about quite different things when it comes to what our next 'perfect' home should be. Until we set our sights on this potential place and were blown away by what we saw and could imagine.

When we first discussed the idea of moving with the boys, they were devastated. They didn't want to call another place home. They insisted they would be fine sharing a room forever and Olivia could move into their room too, so we didn't have to get a bigger place. They even agreed to giving up some books and toys to make space.

The day we inked the deal, Chip (literally) kissed the walls goodbye and M sobbed big time. A few days later, when the reality set in - that we would lose this beautiful place we have been calling home in a matter of weeks - I had to fight the urge to cry too. Though I know we should be celebrating, for we are moving on to an even better place and I am sure the kids will love this new place once they open their hearts to it, there was just so much that I couldn't bear to leave behind. After all, this was the home where I spent days and nights struggling with all my three babies when they were just teeny tiny bundles. They took their first steps and called 'mama' for the first times within these walls. They grew from babies to toddlers and then to preschoolers and more here and the memories were just everywhere. I spent over nine years in this apartment and it has become more than a home to me. Giving it up was tougher than I had imagined but there were more pressing issues to deal with than our emotions then.

I had to look for a suitable place to rent while we wait for our next dream home to be ready. The search was rather stressful, especially since we had to find it within 3 weeks, before we leave for our two vacations in June (which the ever-so-optimistic-hubby had booked back in March). We finally found a reasonable compromise in the last few days and collected the keys a day before we left for Hong Kong with Olivia. The boys stayed behind to enjoy the apartment for the remaining days with grannies. The day we returned from Hong Kong, we packed like crazy. The official move took place the day after. What followed was three days of hectic unpacking in the rented apartment before we left for our second vacation in Phuket.

It was all like a whirlwind affair. Friends called us crazy for scheduling two vacations in the same month as our big move and they were so right. We were crazy for stressing ourselves out so much though it was unintentional. E was just so optimistic back in March/April that it would take a while to sell our home given our asking price and the prevailing market sentiments. He was confident that even if we sold it before June, we would only need to vacate in July, which would give us plenty of time for vacations. :D   Oh well, it was stressful but we survived. So next time we could look back and just laugh at ourselves.

So here we are... in our temporary home. I am getting used to this place now, though there are many areas that I dislike. It's not a biggie, especially since I can take comfort in the thought that we will leave this place in time to come, for a much nicer place that we can transform into our next dream home. There is much to anticipate and plenty to do for the months ahead. For now, I am going to enjoy the ride and look forward to embracing our new life.