We Moved to Florida
We moved to paradise.
The world is changing. The world has changed. And if you are waiting for it to go back to normal, it’s not. We have to move through this time. The other side will be something different. Something more beautiful than you could ever imagine. But it requires you to shift. To change. To adapt.
We moved to paradise.
It hit me like a wave. I didn’t want to live in Connecticut anymore. Something that I once loved, felt different to me. I felt suffocated by the location I was immersed in. And I knew that there was no way we were going to spend another winter in below freezing temperatures, locked inside, with nowhere to go, as wave two or three or four of whatever this was rolled on through.
No. We were moving to paradise.
And for us, that was Florida.
If you’ve been following along our lives, you’ve witnessed how we’ve chosen Orlando as our vacation spot time and time again. This past winter, before the world changed, we were sitting in The Rainforest Cafe right outside Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Camilla was eating a cheese quesadilla and Kroy was sleeping on my chest. And I distinctly remember turning to Shane and saying,
This would be such a fun place to live. Imagine how magical our lives would be if we could do this every weekend.
And then we resumed eating.
Fast-forward to March (three months later). Our small New England town was one of the first to be hit with whatever this is. The New York Times called us “ground zero”. Everything shut down. The fear in the air was permeable. And we were stuck inside a house in the dead of winter with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
It quickly became clear that if we stayed in Connecticut we would be forced to endure this for another Winter. And I refuse to live my life like that. I refuse to have my kids live their lives like this. Every day is a gift. Tomorrow isn’t promised. And we were going to make the most of our lives while we were on this swirling blue planet. However long that ends up being.
So in July, we packed up our house into a small storage unit, giving away most of our possessions. And loaded up our Jeep Wrangler with two suitcases and the dogs. My husband began the 18 hour drive to Florida. And I hopped on a plane with the kids (after exhausting all other options).
And now we are here. Here being a beautiful temporary rental in Siesta Key.
Shane started his new job this morning. And we will be in this month long dream house on the beach for the month of August while we search for our new home.
We are in the pool and trying to get outside as much as possible. Orienting ourselves and soaking this all in. This is our journey. And I can’t wait to share it with you.