What are our plans now?

We left South Mississippi for Eastern Kentucky on March 1st to pursue new jobs. I was at my old orthopedic job for almost 3 years before I left. My job was amazing because of my team mates AND my amazing patients. I found myself growing very attached to many of my patients to the point where they became family. So, when I left there were definitely tears shed.

We packed everything up and drove 12 hours east with the boys. Hubbs wasn’t supposed to start his job until mid March and I was supposed to start April 1st. As soon as we started unpacking, that week the Covid-19 pandemic hit and closed down KY. We had plans of getting into a church and meeting natives of this cute little town. Reed eventually went to work and I stayed home with the boys because the schools were shut down. I FREAKED out! My job still had me starting April 1st and with schools out, we had NO ONE to watch the boys because we simply knew no one. So, what would ANY freaked to mom do in this situation, call my mom…duh, ha!

My mom and dad quarantined for 2 weeks until they headed our way. I know dad was ecstatic because I asked him to come help us with handyman things here around the house. They finally make it. The boys are excited, Reed is stoked because he gets to eat authentic Vietnamese food, and I am happy that they got here safe. In the mean time I am getting my job credentialing things done in order to start my orthopedic job up here, then I get an email. The email states that they pushed back my start date to June 1st due to the pandemic and furloughed employees. At first I was upset. Here we are, just packed up and moved our ENTIRE family to another state for jobs and then I’m no working. I told my parents the news and they said they were going to go back to Tennessee to take care of things since I was going to stay home with the boys. Totally understand that. So they left after helping us with things around the house.

At this point, Reed is the only person working, we still had bills coming in. I was stressed and didn’t know what to do. I had no other option but to become a stay at home mom because still, the state is shut down. Being with the boys 24/7, I had to get creative to teach them school work and keep them busy. They were doing great and having fun exploring the house and the land. Then I started getting hints from Archer that he was not taking the move very well. He started having nightmares, asking for his family back in Mississippi, and just acting out more. We would face time Reed’s family and my family often. Archer got REALLY excited to hear that Reed’s side of the family was coming to visit soon.

Reed’s family finally arrive. Archer and Tucker are able to play with their cousins; it was just what Archer needed. To be honest, I believe this is what the family needed. Reed took me upstairs while the kids were playing, he looked at me and we had an epiphany: We needed to move back to Mississippi. Our boys need to be closer to their family and friends. We moved thinking this was the perfect time, but we realized that at their ages, having family around was more important. It was at this point that we rellized as working parents that you cannot have both time and money; one has to outweigh the other. Time is something we will NEVER get back and money is only temporary.

So there you have it folks!! Just as fast as we packed up to come to eastern KY, we are moving AGAIN back to south MS! Reed will get his old job back at the hospital and I am praying that God puts me where HE needs me to be. Others will call this move a failure, but in my opinion failing is if you never tried in the first place. We moved, LOVED the town, but the timing was just off. We didn’t fail because we learned from this experience, but we’ll definitely be back to vacation in the future.