3,274 Miles

Two weeks ago, I watched the movers bring one brown box after another into our brand new house. The new house isn't that much different from the old one except it's got the extra bedroom we need for the girls, the carpet's not yet been changed out for wood, and someone built it in Florida instead of Austin.

Well that, and this one isn't mine... it's ours.

As the movers packed up their truck, Ben and I walked through the maze of cardboard and walls of rubbermaid. We sat on our couch and layed down on our bed. We closed our eyes in the middle of it all and breathed. Then we took one last look before locking the doors and climbing into our Durango for the 3,274 miles that stretched before us.

I remember how this trip began months ago. It was a fairly straight line stretching from Florida to Texas - a route that would bring us back to our children. Certainly no where near 3,000 miles...goodness, no. But things never really go as we plan, do they? It turns out Ruthie would be in Missouri and Ben's girls in North Carolina.

And the route that began as a fairly straight line stretching from Florida to Texas became a circle that would connect us with new family, old friends, the ones we love, and most importantly... our children.

We'll finally walk back into our new home tomorrow. We'll be surrounded by a maze of cardboard and walls of rubbermaid. I know the first thing I'll want to do is kick off my shoes and stretch out on my own bed. I also know I'll be sad because the most important thing won't be there. We won't hear the voices of our girls as they chase each other from room to room or the sound of boxes being knocked over as they try to climb inside.

For now, we've only traveled 3,274 miles and that's not enough to bring them home to us.

Love,
me

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I've got one more token to share. This one in honor of the new year and new journeys.

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.