When we first listed the house, we came up with a plan to do a ‘Good Bye’ tour of California. We wanted to visit our favorite restaurants and places like Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm. Which, in retrospect, is really quite silly because it’s not like we wouldn’t be coming back to visit.

In the end we didn’t have the time to do much of everything. But we did visit a few of our favorite places to eat. We had a going away dinner with friends at The Olde Ship. And we got take out from the good Chinese place in Stanton. We also had Del Taco quite a few times because Del Taco isn’t as prolific in Washington as it is in California. We also visited a friend’s new restaurant, called the Cauldron – which is actually a pretty cool little restaurant.

We had dinner with my Mom and one of my Aunts one last time at Sizzlers the Friday before we moved. The next day we spent with John’s family. We also took the Boyo to ride the train at Irvine Park and saw my Mom one more time and said Goodbye to Grandma. Sunday our church said good bye to us we had a going away BBQ later that afternoon with some good friends and one of John’s cousins.

While saying good bye to friends and family was hard – there was a lot of crying, and running back to doors for one last hug – the worst was yet to come.

Now it was time to say goodbye to the Boyo’s therapists.

Now before you blast me over that, hear me out. The therapists had been a part of our lives for almost two years. The current team had been working with us for at least a year, and for the last nine months they were at our house five days a week for five hours a day. They were a HUGE part of our lives. The Boyo loved them (sometimes I suspect he loved them more than us because they had the cool toys) and, honestly, we did too.

We knew we would talk to our friends and family again. We knew we would see them whenever we came to visit. And we knew that some of them would come to visit us once we got settled in.

We had no idea if we would ever be able to see or speak with the therapists ever again. There were rules in place preventing us from following them on social media for a certain period of time. And who knew if they would still be working for the same company the next time we were in town?

And for the therapists… these were women who had watched the Boyo grow up from a one year old who never spoke, had no attention span, never listened to directions, and threw the WORST tantrums, to a tall three year old who could say his ABCs, colors, shapes, planets AND count to twenty. He could also sight read simple words. And while his attention span wasn’t perfect, and directions were still hit and miss, they and the tantrums had vastly improved.

So there were A LOT of tears on both sides as we said good bye to them one by one.

And then it was time to say the biggest good bye of all – good bye to our first house…