Starting Over

     Take a deep breath and count to 10.  I remember saying this, to myself as I pulled away from the drive.  The Jeep Liberty was loaded to the roof, both in the very back and the back seat with a few delicate items in the seat next to me.  We'd only been married 2 months prior to our move.  I had butterflies and knots in my  stomach all at the same time.  I'd  never lived out of this little community since I was 3 yrs of age.  Now, here I was,( heading 350 miles South to make a new life, a new home.  It hurt my heart to  think of my girls.  Even though they were both out on their own, building their life, I didnt want this many miles between us. Poor Chaleesa, she just moved back to the county we lived in.  She said, "Finally, we get to live close again, Mom."  She'd been away at college the last 4 years and just landed her first teaching job in the county where we lived!  This broke my heart to tell her we had a different plan.

     The new place we were heading for, awaited my husbands two boys and he'd  lived apart from them for 3 1/2 years.  My mother also lived in the town we were headed to, which made me feel good.  She'd been away from my siblings and I for nearly 15 years.  I was leaving behind my siblings, my beautiful girls, some of my husbands family, especially his dad and my dear life-long friends!  "Stop it, stop it" I repeated to myself as tears ran down my face.  This wasn't an easy move for either of us.

     By the time we'd hit the freeway, I had some upbeat music playing and told myself this would be our new adventure! We both would have to break out of our comfort zones to meet new neighbors, new friends and new ward members in our church.  This would be a great move, we would learn to rely on each other.  This was his third and my second marriage...but we were comitted to makeing this work!

     Mike stayed back in our town, with our super, wonderful nieghbors, he had business to tend to while I moved us to sunny St George!  Actually, we found us a rental place in Washington, right next to St George.  I arrived in my overloaded Jeep Liberty with my 2 sisters-in-law in thier Ford F250 pick-up pulling a 4 horse trailer...fully loaded...of course.  I was overwhelmed with emotion to find 7-8 adult men and 3 teenage guys ready and willing to help us unload.  I stepped out of the Jeep, into the warm desert air and this slender man with blue eyes met me. "Hi Mrs. Burt, I found a few people to help you unload!"  "I can't believe this!  Last minute notice on a Friday night?" I replied.  He chuckled and replied, "I don't know that our new ward is this active, we just didn't have anything to do tonight."  Everyone laughed at that, then we all went right to work!

     "Thats the last box?"  I exclaimed as one of the young men asked where it should go.  With that I went out to the front room and noticed most of the men were gone.  The one that had been standing on the porch, waiting our arrival, told us if we needed anything to please let him know. He introduced himself as the Elders Quorum President, then he left. The 3 of us women fell onto the couches.  Linda said, "This one guy said you must of had a big party!"He was referring to all the Liquor boxes we had got from the Liquor store.  So I told him we sure did! Just don't tell the bishop!  I chuckled and asked,  "What did he say?"  Linda said, "Nothing, he just laughed!"  By now I was laughing...I pulled myself together and said, "That was the Bishop!"  We all busted up laughing again..we had worked for two full days, I think we were getting delirious!!

     Moving, starting over...its all so emotional, stressful and exciting.  Mike and I had talked about this move, before we were even married.  I was still trying to convince myself, I just wasn't 100% sure why we were doing this.  We both admitted feeling a pull in this direction...but why?? Sure, we moved to be with the boys and help my mom, but, little did we know it would turn out to be so much more...