Three Years

At this time three years ago, we were settling in for our first night in Buffalo. We arrived in the early afternoon and made a stop along the waterfront, enjoying the view of the lake and feeling hopeful about what this new city had in store for us. Shortly after, we drove past our potential first apartment and since we had time to kill until our scheduled viewing, we found the nearest Starbucks and purchased a newspaper along with some tasty drinks.

The apartment looked great and we were ready to start unpacking once we signed the lease. The landlords misunderstood our communication with them about when we were moving, so they said we wouldn't be able to stay there that night. Being completely unfamiliar with the area and where hotels were, as well as exhausted from the previous two days of packing and moving, we were feeling quite disappointed in this turn of events, but ended up finding a Super 8 nearby that was nice enough for one night.

The next day brought errands and the beginnings of unpacking at our new place. Being seven months pregnant and nursing a cold (that ended up being pneumonia), I was easily drained of energy and spent a lot of those first days resting.

Tony's first few weeks at work left me with plenty of time to rest and unpack and take care of the details of moving to a new state. Of course, if I'm being completely honest, Tony still did most of the unpacking. One day after dropping Tony off at work, I decided that I wanted to familiarize myself with the city and I intentionally tried to get lost. It worked. Fortunately I was able to find my way after a while.

I remember being oddly comforted in the familiar street names; Sheridan, Pleasant, Michigan, all roads that we traveled frequently in MI and seeing these common names made me feel connected to home, allowed me to acknowledge this place could easily be home.

I would imagine it helped that we moved as spring was arriving. The fresh grass appearing, the bear trees waiting for new life to bloom, the smell of a changing season in the air reinforced my growing excitement for this new adventure.

Three years later, I'm feeling that same sense of excitement and hope. We are just starting to emerge from an incredibly dark period of our lives. We are stepping into a new phase of life, even if the changes are more subtle than those of three years ago.