April Self Portrait

Again, I realize that I am ridiculously late in posting this, but we really thought we'd be in a very different position right now than we are.  We thought that we would be in the process of moving, not in this annoying limbo state that we're living in.  Mike has been verbally told that he has a job at Hershey Medical Center, but we are STILL waiting for the offer letter due to multiple hoops that must be jumped through in order to approve a new position.  We were unaware (as were those that assured Mike that he had the job) that the whole process of approving a new position would take as long as it does.  Mike's interview was almost two months ago!  And he was told the day after his interview that he had the job.  So we got in gear and made this house ready to sell.  We decluttered.  We cleaned.  We landscaped.  We staged.

But here we are.  Still in North Carolina.  Still waiting.  Now we're just in this annoying holding pattern, because our house is ready, we are ready, and we can't do anything yet.  We just have to sit here and watch the interest rates for mortgages start climbing.  We have to force ourselves to turn off Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, etc, because we see houses that we love get sold.  It's frustrating.  And that is an understatement.

But, way back when, in April, we still thought we'd be moving any day, so I spent the month tirelessly getting this house ready.  I took down most of our personal stuff, and we filled an entire 15x5 storage unit.

Here I am working on Addy's room: (And, yes, this was taken in April.)

I finally took down the Baby Hetrick banner that my sister made me for my baby shower.  The one that Tina and Mike laughed at me for ever putting up in the first place.  I loved it.  And I cried when I took it down.  I cried because Addy is not a baby anymore, and pretty soon Emma won't be either.  I cried because everything felt so final as I was packing up my little girl's room.  We really are leaving.  This state that we love.  This house that we love.  We brought both of our babies home to this house.  And no matter how you spin it, I am sad that we are leaving.  This house, this great state of North Carolina, this past ten years of our lives, will always hold a special place in my heart.  It has been an amazing ride so far, and I can only hope that our next ten years will bring as much joy as the past ten have!