Moving to a new place really can be fun and exciting and interesting as well as scary and challenging and lonely. I think I could have stopped moving a few cities ago, but God has had other plans and I trust that the Lord has a plan for wherever we are called to. We are still trying to find a place to live. We've decided to move into a rental for a bit so we can get a bit more settled while the baby is born and then in the spring find a place we want to stay longer. We are still hoping to sell our house in Minneapolis, but unfortunately the housing market is terrible and it's a difficult time to sell so we just have to wait and see.
We at least have our new doctors and our son had tubes put in his ear this week. We've now been here a month and at least know a bit more about where we are staying. It's really interesting because most families here are two income families and the ones that aren't, usually the working parent makes well over $100,000 a year and more likely $200,000 or $300,000.
When looking for houses, no one can seem to wrap their head around the fact that I am going to only work part-time outside the home because I really want to be home with my boys. The average house prices where we are run about $750,000 - yeah right! Moving from the Midwest, it's just a big jump. I guarantee that has the biggest influence on the increase in cost of living. In general, the overall cost is not that much, but depending on what you use and need, I think it can be more or less.
We've looked at pretty tiny houses and more often two bedroom apartments that cost around $300,000. It's just an adjustment and we think in order to just pay our bills and pay our student loans, I'm going to have to keep working part-time.
As far as moving, it can be difficult and put such strain on a marriage. My husband is such a good man and I appreciate how he honors me, but there is just a lot of strain because 1. We only know each other and 2. There are so many life changes happening at once. We also get torn between keeping in touch with friends back home and other places we've lived and spending that time making new ones. We try to balance it out, but it can be depressing hearing everything you're missing when you don't even want to and so it is usually healthier to make yourself put time into making new friends. It makes the adjustments a lot easier when all the chaos settles down.
I just keep my hope in the Lord, knowing He will lead and guide us and help us with all we need. I just hope the only move we have after this is back home, where we can stay for a long time.
