A NEW CHAPTER

Well, we did it. One week ago today we moved to campus.

This was 10 months in the works, so the five of us had a lot of time to wrap our minds around the idea. It was/is a big idea. And now a new chapter has begun for the J-Ms.

After months of purging (I estimate we gave away at least 1/3 of our earthly possessions), planning, prepping, and packing, our big Move Day was this past Saturday. We hired four big strong guys from the Lehigh Wrestling Team to help us with the actual move. They made short work of it and I’d venture to say that we all actually had some fun that day.

Kyle, Owen, and Meera have been unbelievable through this whole thing. We spent much time talking and processing together in the weeks and months leading up to this move. What a huge transition for these three kids. And for their parents. We’ve got three big things going on here:

1. Drastically dramatically radically downsizing from a 3,200 square foot single-family house on 1.4 acres with an in-ground pool and every amenity imaginable… to an 800 square foot apartment.
2. Moving from a bucolic suburb-esque ‘town-and-country’ Bucks County residential neighborhood… to a dorm on campus.
3. Leaving the only home our kids have known/remember… to start a new and unknown chapter of our lives.

We have a lot going on!

But every step of the way these kids have completely amazed me with their embrace of all this, their openness to this adventure, and their enthusiasm for every bit of it.

I expected that we’d all be homesick. I always have been every time I’ve ever moved before. But this time, at least so far, none of us have been. It is shocking to me (I was so prepared for it that it has taken me by surprise that none of us five have had any feelings of homesickness). I keep waiting for the let-down. But so far it hasn’t come. Exhaustion, yes. But depression, no. I can’t quite explain it. Except to think that –yes– we were all really ready for this, and this is right for us.

The bambinos are loving life on campus. I honestly have never seen them happier. They are now officially Campus Kids (three of only six children living on Lehigh’s campus– the others are the President’s two teenage children; and the baby daughter of the Director of Jewish Student Life/Associate Chaplain who is the one other Residential Fellow). They are quite the sight walking around campus as if it were all their very own big back yard.

We have a volleyball court right outside our front door. Long before we ever moved in here I knew that it would only be a matter of hours before Kyle and Owen were playing volleyball with the big boys. Sure enough, it was exactly the case. I think they’ve joined in at least one game every day so far.

And I knew that the sidewalk in front of our “dorm” would be a dream come true for chalk and scooters. And sure enough, that is exactly the case.

For the past week I’ve stayed very close to the bambinos. I’ve consciously and purposefully been like a mother hen pulling her three littles tight under her wing. We’ve slowly ventured out and about, attended a few events together, and last night we had our first dinner in one of the dining halls on campus (which went about as perfectly as I could have ever imagined). Things are going well. Very, very well.

We have had no childcare whatsoever for the past week (which has been so important and good for the kids’ transition, but so crazy for me because the fall semester is really ramping up with classes starting on Monday). Then yesterday afternoon, from 3-5, we had our first babysitter. A student of mine who had taken my Sociology of Children and Childhood course a few semesters ago (always good to have a babysitter who’s taken Soc of Children! 😉 lol!), came and relieved me for a bit. The bambinos had the greatest time, I got a couple of dedicated hours of work in (that weren’t between the hours of 9pm-1am!), and all was good. Here they were when I returned home to our cozy abode.

That photo above is a sneak peak of our new family room! I’ll try to post all about our new home sweet home sometime soon.

In other news: our house still has not sold. That’s the one real downer in this whole thing so far. We’ve had so many potential buyers come so close, but we have yet to get an official offer. Anyone want to buy a beautiful family home in PA?!