Our Story {Part 5} MOVING

-MOVING-

If you missed parts 1-4 you can find them here

I remember when my parents told me that we were moving and just sitting there thinking that I must be in some horrible nightmare and surely I would wake up soon.  But it wasn't a nightmare...it was real.  My world was crashing down around me and I could do nothing about it.  My Dad's job was three hours away from our house and he was staying in a little apartment during the week and was only home on the weekends.  It was so exhausting for him and my mom, that they felt it was best for our family to move closer to his job. 

 I was a missionary kid growing up and had spent years and years thinking that I would one day be moving away to Argentina and not coming back until I was 18.  I hated the thought of leaving all of my friends for that long.  But, after one year of language school in Mexico, my parents made the very difficult decision to come off the mission field due to some things that were happening in our family.  They believed it was the best thing for us not to be missionaries any longer.  So, when we came home when I was 11, I thought that we would be in my home town forever.  Now, once again, I felt like my whole world was being thrown upside down and it was pretty much unbearable. 

I went to school and told Nathan.  We both just sat there and looked at each other in silence.  Neither of us really knew what to say.  I just felt like my heart was being torn out of my body and I knew that nobody would understand the pain I was feeling.  No one believed that two 13 year olds could care so much for each other. 

My parents decided to pull my brother Matt and me out of school a few weeks before we moved.  I remember being so angry with them for doing that.  It didn't make any sense to me why they wouldn't let me spend the last four weeks before we moved at the school I loved so much, but that was what they thought best and that is what happened.  They did let us go to all the basketball games and such that were held at the school before we moved.  I know I talked to Nathan on the phone a few times in those few weeks and saw him a few times at games and an ODACS competition, but most of our conversations are a blur to me.  We spent most of our time at the games just trying to forget that I was leaving in a few weeks.  We tried to laugh and talk like everything was normal.  

*I'll share something very personal...I debated for a long time on whether to share this part or not but it's kind of a big part of our story because it's so meaningful to me.  We had our first kiss before I moved.  And while I won't go into any of the specifics because again...it is very personal, having Nathan be my first kiss was always so incredibly special to me.  I know we were young...way too young to be kissing, and I hope that none of my children are kissing at such a young age.  I hope to teach them to save themselves completely until they are married, but this is how our story went and it's very special to me. 

Two nights before my family moved, there was a basketball game and my Dad had my brother take me so that I could see Nathan one last time and tell him goodbye.  That night went by so fast.  It felt like I blinked and it was all over.  I can not tell you one single thing we talked about, but I can remember feeling like I was dying inside.  At the end of the night, Nathan walked with me and my brother out to our van.  We hugged so tightly and I cried so hard.  I felt like my heart was going to burst right out of my chest.  He opened the door for me and we said our final goodbye.  As we drove away I remember holding my hand up against the window (it was probably very dramatic, but then again 13 year old girls are known to be so! :) 

I didn't say anything the whole way home.  I just cried.  Then two days later the moving truck came, we loaded everything up, and we left...

To be continued...