4 years ago, today, my family and I packed up our belongings from the big city of LA, and moved to the ‘burbs of Northern California.

Our family of three was leaving one dream for a chance at another.

Just imagine, a Uhaul truck, with everything we’d ever owned piled high in the back, followed by a 4Runner packed as much as it possibly could, along with a 5-month old baby centered in the backseat headed North on 1-5.

The trip took us TEN hours to complete which included the following: a few stops to feed the baby a bottle or change a crappy nappy, a 2-hour wait at a gas station in the middle of nowhere while AAA found us to check out an overheating gauge issue (that turned out to be just an electrical problem. The UHaul, in fact, was NOT overheating every time hubs went over 50 mph. LUCKILY.)

At one point, I was holding the bottle and feeding the baby WHILE driving. He wouldn’t finish his bottle while we were stopped, but burst into complete hysterics once we got back on the road, so I fed him while doing 70mph AT NIGHT on a MAJOR highway. One word. SMART.

We had lived in LA, hoping hubs would “make it” (whatever that meant at the time) as a musician. While he had quite some modest success, we had still planned to have a baby while pursuing his dream. Once Rt was born in the Spring of ‘05, little by little our perspective began to change, our priorities then changed. So, we decided we needed to move.

I, for one, was feeling a bit depressed. On some level, being away from family, in a place that didn’t SCREAM, “family environment”, I was sinking, fast. I had just quit my job, decided to stay home and raise our baby and had no one to relate to. I was alone. Hubs was still having band practices twice a week. Life for him was still constant. Mine was upside down. It wasn’t working. We both knew it. And we both wanted to change it.

Within a couple of months of being up here, in the ‘burbs, I found a group of girls, 5 of them, that to this day are considered true friends. Surrounding myself with a community that felt like we were in the right place at the right time was priceless to me and my family. We might not be here forever, but it’s been our home, our first real home, for the past four years. It’s all we’ve ever known as a family.

Having made a major move in my life on September 11th, will always make me reflect on my family and how we got to where we are today. It also makes me grateful for everyday we have with each other. I don’t know where’d I be if it weren’t for these 3 boys in my life. Today of all days, makes me appreciate them more than they’ll ever know.

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